The Hindu : Centre `partial' to Goa on Mahadayi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Centre `partial' to Goa on Mahadayi

By M.Madan Mohan

HUBLI Dec. 22. Has the BJP-led NDA Government taken a partisan attitude vis-à-vis Karnataka's plan to tap the waters of the Mahadayi.

It appears so judging by the manner in which the Centre went out of the way to oblige Goa by postponing a decision on Karnataka's plan at the meeting convened by the Union Water Resources Minister, Arjun Charan Sethi, in New Delhi on Friday.

The Centre chose to remain indifferent to Karnataka, which had taken a flexible stand in a bid to get the Union ministry's decision revoked on the "in principle" clearance. The meeting was specially called to go into the complaint made by Goa, which had demanded the constitution of a tribunal to adjudicate the share of waters of the inter-State river. The meeting was attended by H.K.Patil, Karnataka Minister for Water Resources, and Manohar Parrikar, Goa Chief Minister. Mahadayi is a west-flowing river that takes birth in Karnataka and flows into Goa before joining the Arabian Sea. Karnataka plans to divert 7.5 tmcft. of water from the Mahadayi to augment the storage in the Malaprabha for meeting the drinking water needs of Hubli-Dharwad and other areas in the region.

Goa's complaint is that Karnataka's move to tap 7.5 tmcft. of water from Mahadayi would adversely affect the ecology. Goa is persisting with the grievance despite reports given by institutions such as NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur) saying Goa's apprehensions have no basis.

The BJP Government in Goa has proved to be no exception to the policy pursued by the previous Congress Government in influencing the Union Government to toe its line. It all started with the Union Ministry of Water Resources first giving the "in principle" clearance to the Karnataka project and going back on it a few months later, at the behest of the Government in Goa. Matters did not end there. The Union Government obliged Goa by easing out Navalvalia, Secretary, Water Resources, for "favouring" Karnataka.

Surprisingly at Friday's meeting, the Union Ministry of Water Resources expressed reservations over the data on the yield of water in Mahadayi prepared by its own agencies like the Central Water Commission and NWDA, among others, and on which Karnataka had relied to make out its case.

While expressing disbelief over the ministry's stand over the data, Karnataka agreed to abide by any data that the Government of India would provide afresh or the one prepared by the Goa Government on the water yield. Its plea was that the Union Government should permit it to go ahead with preparations and agreed to abide by the stipulations that might be put before starting the work. When the Union minister remained silent on Karnataka's demand for rescinding the order for keeping in abeyance the "in principle" approval, Karnataka demanded that a tribunal be constituted as demanded by Goa. "We have waited for years for a solution. We don't mind waiting for two more years for the issue to be decided by the new tribunal. If the Government of India could not give justice, we can get it from the tribunal."

However, Mr. Sethi, who had convened the meeting to consider Goa's demand for constitution of a tribunal, was reportedly unwilling to take any immediate decision on it.

As was made clear by State Government sources, the Union Government was inflexible, and was determined to favour Goa, and all the flexibility that Karnataka brought into its argument went in vain. "We don't know how much more flexible we have to be. If this was their attitude, why call the meeting," they said. The developments have raised another important issue of the relative clout enjoyed by the BJP units in the tiny State of Goa, and in Karnataka. Looking at the way in which the Union Ministry bent over backwards to oblige Goa at the cost of Karnataka, the obvious inference is that Goa commands a lot of influence in Delhi.

And Karnataka is hardly taken note of despite having a Cabinet minister, the national President of the party being elected to Rajya Sabha from the State, and the potential of Karnataka as the only State in the South where the BJP could fare well in the Lok Sabha elections. This should bother the BJP bigwigs in Karnataka more than anybody else.

At the moment, what the BJP in Karnataka is interested in is to pick holes in the approach of the State Government on the Mahadayi issue rather than help it sort out the problem in the interests of the State.

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