BELAGAVI: In less than two months after writing to the Karnataka government to launch work on the Kalasa-Banduri project (part of Mahadayi project), after the gazette notification of Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) order, the Union government backed off from its stand and has now decided not to publish the gazette notification, until the review petitions filed by the three stakeholders of the Mahadayi project with the tribunal are cleared.
In response to a question raised by B K Hariprasad in Rajya Sabha on Monday, the Centre made it clear that until the petitions pending before the tribunal were cleared, it was not possible to publish gazette notification of the tribunal’s order. The Centre also stated that the gazette notification at this moment could amount to sub judice.
The sudden change in the Centre’s stand has shocked many legal experts and leaders in the state. A noted legal expert and former member of the team of advocates who represented Karnataka in the Mahadayi case in the Supreme Court, M B Zirli, said, “Clarificatory applications have been filed by Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka (three stakeholders) in the MWDT to get clarifications on some paras in the final judgement of MWDT, which may not be clear. However, there is no legal bar for the Centre to publish the gazette notification. But the Centre may have decided against publishing the notification due to certain technical problems.’’
In a letter to Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai on December 24, 2019, Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar accorded permission to the state to go ahead with the Kalasa-Banduri nala project, after the gazette notification of the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT) and “necessary forest and wildlife permissions”.
Soon after Javadekar’s letter to Karnataka, Goa CM Pramod Sawant took a delegation to the Centre to halt Karnataka from going ahead with the project. Goa Governor Satyapal Malik also exerted pressure on Javadekar to protect the interests of his state, and told a local news channel that Goa had been cheated and suffered injustice in the Mahadayi issue. He objected to release water from the Mandovi river for irrigation purposes under the Mahadayi project.
And under pressure from Goa, the Centre began changing its stand and finally clarified in the Rajya Sabha on Monday that it will not publish the gazette notification. The MWDT awarded 13.42 tmcft of water to Karnataka under the Mahadayi project in its final order on August 14, 2018. The tribunal allowed Karnataka to share 5.5 tmcft of water from the Mahadayi river for drinking and another 8.02 per cent of water for hydro-electricity generation. Karnataka was involved in a long-stretched battle with neighbouring Goa for its share of 36.55 tmc of water under the Mahadayi project, including 7.56 tmc for the purpose of drinking water purpose.