Kumar abhay, Member of Legislative Assembly, Belagavi Dakshin, Karnataka

Addressing a press conference at the state Secretariat, Rodrigues said that Karnataka had already started diverting water from the Mhadei river basin without waiting for the notification of the Mhadei Inter-State Water Dispute Tribunal."This letter will not have any legal standing as far as the matter before the Supreme Court is concerned. There may be more letters, more correspondence. They may put up further demands. We should not get disturbed because of their correspondence. There is no value for this letter as regards to starting work of Kalasa-Banduri canal," Rodrigues said.The Goa government has already filed a special leave petition which has accused Karnataka of illegally diverting the river water."Water is cut off and diverted from the Mhadei basin because of construction of the canal," Rodrigues said, adding that a team from his ministry had documented the illegal diversion of water from the Mhadei basin in Karnataka with evidence.Javadekar and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant faced a fresh round of criticism on Tuesday, after the former in his capacity as MoEF Minister wrote to Karnataka Home Minister Basvaraj Bommai on December 24, saying the Karnataka government could proceed with the water diversion project after the 2018 award on the Mhadei interstate water dispute is formally notified by the Central Government.Incidentally, on December 18, an MoEF official in a letter to the Karnataka government had said that an earlier letter from the central ministry giving a green nod to the Kalasa-Banduri had been kept in abeyance.The Goa government has opposed the project claiming diversion of water from the Mhadei basin would cause "ecological devastation" in the coastal state, where nearly half the population of 1.5 million depends on Mhadei river water.The Mhadei river originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea near Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra. An interstate water disputes tribunal, set up by the central government, after hearing the over two-decade-old Mhadei river water sharing dispute among Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, in August 2018 allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) (including 3.9 TMC for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) to Karnataka and 1.33 TMC to Maharashtra.( With inputs from IANS )

Kumar AbhayFOLLOW

Kumar abhay, Latest News

Karnataka minister S Suresh Kumar on Friday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's move to give Rs 5 lakhs as compensation to those killed during anti-CAA protests. ...

Mumbai collapsed to a 10-wicket loss to Railways on Friday in an early season shock at the ongoing third round of the Ranji Trophy. This is the first time ever that Mumbai are losing a Ranji Trophy match by this margin and just the second time in Fir ...

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Friday held a press conference pertaining to the ongoing Mahadayi river water sharing issue and said, "If required, we will also go against the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change." ...

The President of India signed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) on December 13, which was a Friday. For those who are superstitious, the timing of the law couldn't have been more grim. Since then, vociferous protests and violence leading to many de ...

The Trinamool Congress (TMC) trade union arm would give Rs 500,000 to the family of each of the two victims of the December 19 Mangaluru firing during the anti-CAA protests, said senior leader said. ...

The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC) chairman Justice DH Vaghela has called for a full bench sitting on December 31 over reports of alleged police action which took place during the anti-CAA protests in Mangaluru earlier this month. ...

slamming Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa for "backtracking" on his promise of financial compensation to families of those killed during the anti-CAA protests, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said a delegation from her ...

Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar's recent letter to the Karnataka government stating that the Kalasa-Banduri project does not need environmental clearance has no legal standing, Goa's Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri R ...