The Goa government will not approach the Supreme Court with an appeal against the recent award of the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal for fear of an adverse order, State Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said here on Thursday.
He was addressing a press conference at the State Secretariat. The Minister said that his statements in the past, where he maintained that “not a drop of water would be allowed to be shared with Karnataka”, were political in nature and made to keep the opponents in check. “If we go to the Supreme Court and something untoward happens, then who will be responsible? The Goa government is happy (with the Tribunal’s award). People are saying you should go to the Supreme Court, but I feel that there is no need because the award of the Mahadayi Tribunal has given Goa good amount of water and justice,” Mr. Palyekar said.
On August 14, the Tribunal which was hearing a dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, for nearly two decades, over sharing of water from the Mahadayi river, in its award allotted 13.42 tmcft (including 3.9 tmcft for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) from the Mahadayi river basin to Karnataka. Maharashtra has been allotted 1.33 tmcft.
He also said that since the origin of the Mahadayi river was in Karnataka, it was destined that the neighbouring State would also get its due share of the river water.
