SME Times News Bureau | 05 Feb, 2018
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday urged Prime
Minister Narendra Modi to help in resolving the Mahadayi water
dispute between the state and BJP-ruled neighbouring Goa.
"On
behalf of my people, I urge you to help us resolve the Mahadayi
dispute," the Chief Minister tweeted, as Modi was on a day-long
visit to the state.
Siddaramaiah had also written many
letters to the Prime Minister to intervene in the issue through an
out-of-court settlement as the inter-state issue is currently before
the Supreme Court and the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal.
Modi
was in the city to address a BJP rally that marks the culmination of
the party's 90-day rally across the districts of poll-bound
Karnataka.
Several pro-Kannada organisations staged
protests at Freedom Park in the city centre on Sunday, demanding
Modi's intervention in the water issue to meet the drinking needs of
the state's four drought prone-districts: Bagalkote, Belagavi,
Dharwad and Gadag.
Though the river Mahadayi or Mandovi
flows 29 km in Karnataka and 52 km in Goa, its catchment area is
spread over 2,032 km in the southern state as against 1,580 km in
Goa.
Karnataka has been asking Goa since 2001 to release
7.6 thousand million cubic feet of the river water to meet the
drinking and irrigation needs of its people.
Karnataka
plans to build two canals across the Kalasa and Banduri tributaries
of the river in the state to divert and supply the water to the four
districts.
The Tribunal, headed by J.N. Panchal, on July
28, 2016 rejected the state's petition for releasing the water,
citing various grounds, including ecological damage the twin canal
projects may cause.