PROVORIM: If permission to Karnataka’s detailed project report (DPR) for the Mhadei water diversion is not withdrawn by the Centre, then chief minister Pramod Sawant should never use the term ‘doubleengine sarkar’ again, Fatorda GFP MLA Vijai Sardesai said in the House on Thursday. This will be a failure of the double-engine government, and it will prove that having a BJP government at the Centre and in the state has no meaning, he said. Sardesai moved an amendment to the house resolution on the Mhadei and demanded that a resolution be passed by the House stating that within the next six months the Goa government will take up work on all 59 projects to tap the Mhadei’s water, as recommended by the 1999 masterplan. This will make the state’s case against Karnataka stronger, he said. “During the last assembly session, the CM said that the coal handling capacity at Mormugao port will not be increased at any cost. But, yesterday, approval was received to increase coal handling,” said Sardesai, adding the same may happen in the case of the Mhadei diversion issue, despite chief minister Pramod Sawant’s assurances. He said that it is not the opposition that is playing politics over the Mhadei issue. That the approval to Karnataka’s diversion project came ahead of elections there shows that BJP at the Centre is using it as a political issue, he said. “Our advocate general says that no water has been diverted from the main Mhadei, but water from the Kalasa and the Bhandura nullahs have been diverted. This is like saying that one hand and one leg of a patient have been amputated, but he is doing fine.” He said that while the government did not even find the issue worth mentioning in the governor’s address, it was good to see the issue now being discussed as critical by BJP MLAs. “The ruling MLAs are saying the BJP government will give justice on the Mhadei issue, and we are supposed to silently accept it and go along with it. You cannot expect us to be cheerleaders,” said Sardesai. Sardesai said that an amendment brought by Union minister Prakash Jawadekar allows states like Karnataka to go ahead with drinking water projects without any forest clearances, which will make it simpler for Karnataka to bulldoze its water diversion works.
Porvorim: Amidst a serious debate on Karnataka’s plans to divert water from the Mhadei river basin, agriculture minister Ravi Naik once again reiterated his plan to build several dams across Goa to store rainwater for consumption and export. Naik said that Goa can use the dam water to earn foreign exchange through export of water. “The central government should give us Rs 20,000 crore and we can build as many dams that we want, and we can store as much water as we want,” said Naik. Naik was speaking on a government resolution to demand that the Centre withdraw the approvals granted to Karnataka’s detailed project report for water diversion from the Mhadei. Naik said that Goa gets a significant amount of rain, which is not efficiently utilised. He said that Goa can even explore the possibility of exporting water to countries in exchange for fuel. “The approvals for DPR should be withdrawn by the Centre. There can be wars over water in the future and for this we need to be alert,” said Naik.
On the Goa-Karnataka border, at the foothills of the Western Ghats, a tiny village is in the eye of a storm. It is in this village of Kankumbi, where Karnataka has started its work of diverting water from the Mhadei.Four short concrete pillars in the Kankumbi forest range, across the Kalasa, stand testimony to Karnataka’s intention to divert water from Goa’s lifeline into the Malaprabha basin.Further north of the Kalasa, there are large canals carrying water into the Malaprabha basin. This work began without any forest clearances. But even as Karnataka has embarked on the Mhadei diversion project—officially and unofficially—the tiny state of Goa continues to keep going back to the drawing board, deliberating and discussing ways and most often than not failing to come up with solutions to utilise the Mhadei water.Over three decades after a masterplan was drawn in 1999 to utilise the Mhadei’s water by envisaging 61 projects across the river, Goa has only the Anjunem and the Amthane reservoirs to show.Goa had even submitted before the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal that it intends to meet the demand for its ‘major uses’ through these projects and 61 dams are required to meet Goa’s water requirement up to 2051. But except for the two reservoirs, the rest 59 projects continue to remain on paper, with the state initiating the process for 10 minor dams just two years ago. Karnataka has long argued that the Mhadei’s waters flow into the sea and therefore, it should be allowed to divert only to meet its “drinking water requirements” in Hubballi and Dharwad.Manoj Borkar, who has been researching Goa’s faunal taxa for three decades, said that Karnataka’s argument that Goa is allowing its water to flow into the sea is foolish at best.“That is the natural cycle of the river. If the flow is stopped it would not be a river. The Mhadei is a river upstream, which as it meanders down turns into an estuary before it meets the sea. The delicate balance in salinity in its coastal plains is maintained by a cycle of precipitation and evaporation, which will be destroyed if the water flow is stopped at Kankumbi,” he said.But it is only in 2020, more than two decades later, that the Goa water resources department initiated the process to set up 10 minor dams in the Mandovi basin and soil investigation was carried out with assistance from the forest department.Of the 10 minor reservoirs for which survey and investigation work was taken up, work on two located at Dharbandora in Kajumol and in Tatodi was expected to be taken up first. But with the matter now pending before the Supreme Court, Goa will require several clearances before the work can begin.“The projects still need to go through many stages, environment impact assessment and get forest and wildlife clearances. The projects also need approval of the central water commission of the Union ministry of water resources — irrespective of the fact that they are minor projects — since they are in a contested basin,” said a senior government official.A report by a private entity, on behalf of the Goa Energy Development Agency and the water resources department, has clearly stated that there is a potential for hydro power projects at nine locations across the state, including on the Mhadei’s waters at Harvalem waterfall, Anjunem dam and Amthane minor irrigation tank.Initial reviews of site conditions indicate that 100kW, 70kW and 20kW micro hydro machines can be installed at site locations.“Hydroelectricity projects were first conceptualised on the Mhadei in the 1960s and even the foundation stone was laid. Though it was found unfeasible at the time, new technology now makes it feasible. The draft State Water Policy, 2021, had also suggested that the process of setting up hydro power plants in Goa’s river basins needs to be expedited,” said an expert.A study by SR Shetye (former director of National Institute of Oceanography), D Shankar, Neetu S and K Suprit shows that the run-off from the Mandovi is much higher than the present dam storage capacity created by the Goa government to date.“The only functional dam on the Mandovi is the Anjunem Dam. The storage capacity of the dam is 45Mcum, less than 1% of the runoff estimated in Panaji. On the Zuari, there exists a much bigger dam, the Selaulim dam. With a storage capacity of about 227Mcum (about 10% of the Zuari’s virgin flow at its mouth near Cortalim),” said the study. Experts like Sachin Tendulkar, a 2007 Fulbright scholar who has studied hydrological problems in Australia, reckon that Goa must get serious about managing its water resources better and should start by drawing catchment management plans.“Water basins are unique. We need to arrive at this golden mean as to what extent we can stretch our catchment areas. The Mhadei issue is a wake-up call,” he said.
On the fifth day of the Punjab leg of his Bharat Jodo Yatra, Rahul Gandhi trained his guns on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, his AAP government and party supremo Arvind Kejriwal saying that Punjab should be run from the state and not from Delhi.Addressing a gathering in Urmar Tanda in Hoshiarpur district, the Congress leader said, “Last thing I want to tell Punjab. See, every state of India has its history, way of living and Punjab should be run from Punjab only…I have said a very deep thing. Punjab should not be run from Delhi. Punjab should be run from Punjab only and I want to tell this thing to the Punjab chief minister, want to tell this thing to Bhagwant Mann-ji that Punjab should be run by Punjab only and not under any influence by Delhi and Bhagwant Mann should not be under any pressure from (Arvind) Kejriwal-ji.”“This is about the history and honour of Punjab. You should work here independently. The Punjab CM should listen to what is in the hearts of the farmers and labourers in the state and work accordingly and should not become someone’s remote control.” Gandhi further said. “Understand this thing that whenever the Congress ruled Punjab, we adopted this philosophy. Punjab CM should run Punjab.”Lashing out the BJP-led government at the Centre, Gandhi said the farmers who protested against three farm laws were tapasvis as they did not go back home for one month. He said that when he demanded two minutes of silence for the 700 farmers who died during the agitation, “the government said no one would observe silence; no one got martyred”.“The farmers were demanding the fruit of their tapasya. They were demanding the fruit of their sweat and blood. Two years later, the prime minister says it was a mistake. The PM of the nation did not talk to the farmers for even a minute. I say this with guarantee that had there been the UPA government, had Manmohan Singh-ji been the prime minister, he would have gone and talked to the farmers…Congress leaders reach out to farmers to ask what happened, what they want. But this government does not hear,” he saidGandhi also criticised the Modi government over demonetisation, GST policies, Covid response and the rejection of the land acquisition Bill. “This is an attack on tapasvis. This is a country of tapasvis and this yatra is protecting that spirit.”“The labourers of this country, small shopkeepers, small and medium businessmen, the youth of the country, they all do tapasya. When a youth prepares for an IIT exam, it is a sort of tapasya. When a student takes the exam of 10+2, that is tapasya. When a farmer sows the seed in the farm, that is tapasya. When a labourer constructs a building, that is tapasya. And our message is that in this country, a theft is being committed with the tapasvis. The one who is doing tapasya is not getting the fruit and the one who is not doing tapasya is getting the fruit. The debt of farmers will not be waived off, but debts worth lakhs of crores of rupees of two to three billionaires would be waived off,” the Congress MP said.Earlier, in the morning, Gandhi started his Yatra from Kala Bakra, near Adampur, in Jalandhar district. Historian S Irfan Habib was among those who joined him in the Yatra. Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu also joined the Yatra from Kharal Kalan, where it halted before its evening leg started.Gandhi also met the late Bahujan Samaj Party leader Kanshi Ram’s sister Swaran Kaur and Kanshi Ram Foundation chief Lakhbir Singh.The morning leg of the Yatra was dedicated to the cause of women’s empowerment as hundreds of women including MGNREGS workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) walked with Gandhi. He interacted with school and college students, little girls as well as elderly women during his walk, which lasted about four hours.
Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo yatra entered its fifth day in Punjab on Monday. Punjab has three regions, namely, Majha, Malwa and Doaba. It will be Rahul’s third day in the Doaba region.Today he resumed his yatra from the Kala Bakra village near Bhogpur in Jalandhar district at 7:00 am. The first break will take place at 11:00 am in the village of Kharal Kalan. And from there it will resume at 3:00 pm and proceed towards Tanda Urmur in district Hoshiarpur on the Jalandhar Pathankot National Highway. The yatra will halt at 6:00 pm and the night stay would be at Khudda near Tanda.Yesterday, Rahul had heaped praises on the people of Punjab on his Facebook handle. Rahul wrote, Blessed by five rivers, Punjab is known for its fertile land. But even nature’s gifts must be nurtured and worked upon for them to yield benefits. It is the Tapasya of the people of Punjab that has turned this land of great opportunity into a land of prosperity, over time.“Their tapasya has also made the people of Punjab fearless, generous, warm and compassionate. As I walk through this remarkable state, every heart I connect with has a common story to tell, a story of true love for India.”Out of his eighth days yatra in Punjab including one day halt on the Lohari festival on January 13, Rahul is spending four days in Doaba itself which is more than half.Doaba, which has 1/5 representation in the state assembly, had given 10 out of 18 seats that Congress had won in Punjab during the 2022 assembly elections. Also, Doaba has the highest percentage of the Dalit population in the country.Rahul Gandhi had started the Punjab leg of his Bharat Yatra from the historical Fatehgarh Sahib on January 11 and entered Ludhiana from there and remained there till January 12.Rahul resumed it on January 14 from Ludhiana- Jalandhar border and entered the Doaba region from Phillaur. But on the same day, he had to suspend it just two hours after its resumption because of the sudden demise of sitting Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar Santokh Singh Chaudhary, who died while walking in the yatra.After the cremation of Chaudhry which was attended by Rahul, the Yatra resumed at 3:30 pm again on Sunday from Jalandhar’s Lyallpur Khalsa college and it went peacefully till its halt at 6:30 pm in Adampur.
