Panaji: Chief minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday urged Karnataka legislative assembly speaker G S Patil to improve relations with Goa, saying the appeal included the long-pending Mhadei water dispute.Addressing the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Goa legislative assembly complex, Sawant noted that speakers of Maharashtra and Karnataka had attended the event.“I urged (Karnataka speaker) to have a better neighbourly relation. When I said neighbourly relations, it includes Mhadei and I have not forgotten to mention it,” Sawant said.Goa and Karnataka have been locked in a dispute for over four decades over Karnataka’s plans to divert Mhadei river water through the Kalasa-Bhandura projects.With monsoon rainfall in Goa down by around 32%, the state government has urged Centre to direct the chairperson of Mahadayi Prawah to immediately inspect the Kalasa and Bhandura project sites during the ongoing monsoon.Goa wants the inspection to assess any breaches at the project sites and recommend remedial measures, with a report submitted to Centre.In a letter to the ministry of jal shakti, the state has also sought action on the technical appraisal granted by the central water commission (CWC) for the Kalasa and Bhandura diversion schemes. It has sought either revocation of the appraisal or, alternatively, that it be kept in abeyance.The state has further requested Mahadayi Prawah to identify and prepare an inventory of all civil infrastructure constructed by Karnataka for the earlier Kalasa and Bhandura diversion schemes that has become redundant or been abandoned following CWC’s technical appraisal of the revised lift diversion scheme.
