Accusing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar of issuing misleading and contradictory statements on Mahadayi water sharing dispute, Water Resources Minister M.B. Patil has said that the former has given misleading information on three accounts.
Mentioning three instances at a press conference here on Friday, he said that Mr. Parrikar has said that Mahadayi is a deficit basin, which is why Goa government was not in a position to share the water with Karnataka.
“This is an absurd and completely false information. It is not Mahadayi but Malaprabha which is the deficit basin, which has also been declared by the Central Water Commission”, he said.
He explained that Mahadayi basin has around 200 tmc ft. of water, of which Goa uses only around 10 tmc ft. water while the remaining goes into the sea every year.
Mentioning the second instance, Mr. Patil said that Mr. Parrikar has announced that as per the norms, it is not possible to share water from one basin to another basin.
“This is also a plain lie as water from one basin to another can be shared. It has happened in the past where water has been shared with Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra from Krishna basin by Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal. Therefore, the statement of Mr. Parrikar is absolutely false and grossly misleading”, he said.
Mentioning the third instance, the Minister said that in the letter written to BJP State president, B.S. Yeddyurappa, Mr. Parrikar had agreed to provide adequate and justifiable water to drought-prone districts of Malaprabha basin, which needs around 7.56 tmc ft. of water.
“Now changing his stand, the Chief Minister is saying that his government would share only 0.01 tmc ft. of water to Malaprabha. This is the statement which is completely contradictory to what he mentioned in the letter to Mr. Yeddyurappa”, Mr. Patil said.
Taking exception to such statements of Mr. Parrikar when the matter was before the Tribunal, Mr. Patil asserted that Karnataka would present all the documents before the Tribunal which is holding the final hearing of its tenure between February 6 and 22.
Condemning the contradictory statements of Mr. Parrikar, the Minister demanded that Mr. Yeddyurappa take a tough stand against Mr. Parrikar for ‘cheating’ the people of Karnataka. “At least now, Mr. Yeddyurappa must understand how Mr. Parrikar is playing with the emotions of the people here by giving flip-flop statements”, he said.
Asserting that the Tribunal’s tenure ends this August and no further extension can be given by any government, Mr. Patil hoped the State would get justice from the Tribunal.
