The State’s legal team is now identifying issues that “went wrong” while presenting arguments before the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal, which rejected Karnataka’s interim application.
Speaking to mediapersons, Minister for Water Resources M.B. Patil regretted that the tribunal had touched upon issues that were not raised by counsels of contesting States.
Speaking about the ecological concerns raised, over allowing Karnataka to draw water, he said objections were not only detrimental to the future of drinking water projects in Karnataka, but also projects of other States, including Goa.
“Technical and legal teams are identifying grey areas in the argument before the tribunal. Interim order helped us understand the mindset of the tribunal. We are working out a strategy to safeguard the interests of the State in the final order,” he said.
“We have decided to take cautious steps in a coherent manner by examining each and every issue threadbare. We are also planning to draft services of another set of experts on ocean science and technology, forest and environment,” Mr. Patil said.
Out-of-tribunal settlement
On the possibility of an out-of-tribunal settlement, he said that could be possible with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking the initiative and bringing the Chief Ministers of three contesting States to the negotiation table.
He added that Mr. Siddaramaiah will write another letter seeking Mr. Modi’s intervention.
