Panaji: All India Congress Committee Goa desk in-charge Dr. Anjali Nimbalkar on Monday said that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant should write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling for a joint meeting with Karnataka to resolve the Mhadei dispute.
Goa and Karnataka are at loggerheads over the diversion of the Mhadei river by the Congress-ruled state through the construction of dams upstream.
The Centre has formed a Water Dispute Tribunal, which decided on the water share. Goa and Karnataka, along with Maharashtra—which also shares part of the water—have appealed against the tribunal’s order in the Supreme Court.
Speaking to reporters in Panaji on Monday, Nimbalkar said that Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah has already written to PM Narendra Modi, asking him to call a joint meeting of the states to resolve the issue.
“In the past, I have already presented the letter written by my party’s Chief Minister to the PM,” she said.
Nimbalkar added that it is the duty of the Goa CM to write a similar letter to the PM, who belongs to his own party, urging him to convene a meeting of the states with the Centre.
She said that Mhadei is a state-specific issue and must be resolved by the Centre. “When the CM from the opposition party can write the letter, why can’t the CM from the ruling party do the same?” Nimbalkar questioned.
