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In major boost, SC admits Goa’s plea challenging Mahadayi award: Pramod Sawant
Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant said the Supreme Court has fixed the next hearing on Goa’s special leave petition on November 28
The Supreme Court on Monday admitted a special leave petition filed by Goa challenging the decision of the Mahadayi Interstate Water Disputes Tribunal and has posted the matter for hearing in November, chief minister Pramod Sawant said.
“A great start to the week for Goa and Goans. In a major boost to Goa’s legal battle for River Mhadei, the Supreme Court of India, today, admitted the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by [the] State of Goa challenging the award of the Mhadei tribunal. [The] Supreme Court now fixes the matter for hearing from 28th November 2023. The Supreme Court also asks the order of Wildlife Warden to be produced before it. Also grants time to file additional evidence within 4 weeks,” Sawant said in a post on Twitter.
In February this year, Goa approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Central Water Commission’s approval to Karnataka to carry out the diversion of the river, a move that was widely seen in the context of the Bharatiya Janata Party seeking re-election in May. The Congress won the state election.
Goa sought a stay citing section 29 of the Wildlife Protection Act, which disallows the diversion of waters from a wildlife sanctuary unless specifically for the benefit of the wildlife of that sanctuary.
Goa’s chief wildlife warden also issued notice to the Karnataka government since the work was likely to be taken up in the vicinity of Goa’s Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Kalasa Banduri project is an ambitious plan to divert waters of the west-flowing streams of the Kalasa and Bandura, tributaries of the west-flowing River Mahadayi to the east-flowing Malaprabha River. It was started by the Karnataka government in the mid-1980s and there were plans to set up a hydroelectric project of 350 megawatts.
Both the Goa and Karnataka governments have, for very different reasons, challenged the final award granted by the tribunal.
While Goa approached the Supreme Court arguing that Karnataka shouldn’t be allowed to divert any water owing to the fact that the Mahadayi river is a water-deficient river, Karnataka also petitioned the top court arguing that the tribunal erred in granting it only 13.42 TMC of water.
The Goa government alleged that Karnataka has started illegally diverting water via a network of canals that were constructed despite an assurance given by Karnataka in 2017 that no further work would be carried out and has written to the Centre to constitute the Mahadayi Water Management Authority, a body that the tribunal said was necessary to implement its report and final decision.
The first budget presented by newly-elected chief minister Siddaramaiah on July 7 promised to take forward the project no sooner they secure the required permissions including environmental and forest clearances.
