Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has sought renewed action on the Mhadei water dispute, urging Karnataka’s legislative assembly Speaker G S Patil to improve relations with Goa and asking the Centre to order an immediate monsoon inspection of Karnataka’s Kalasa-Bhandura project sites.
Speaking at the Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Goa Legislative Assembly complex, Sawant said he had raised the dispute while appealing to Patil for better relations between the neighbouring states. “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,” he said.
Goa and Karnataka have been engaged in the dispute for more than four decades over Karnataka’s plans to divert water from the Mhadei river through the Kalasa-Bhandura projects. The dispute has remained a major interstate water and infrastructure issue, with Goa opposing diversion plans that it says affect the river system on which the state depends.
The latest intervention comes as Goa reports that monsoon rainfall has fallen by around 32%. In a letter to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, the state government has asked the chairperson of Mahadayi Prawah to inspect the Kalasa and Bhandura project sites during the ongoing monsoon.
Goa wants the inspection to determine whether there have been any breaches at the project sites. It has also asked that the inspection report be submitted to the Centre and that the findings be used to recommend remedial measures.
The state’s request places particular emphasis on the physical condition of infrastructure linked to the diversion schemes. Goa has asked Mahadayi Prawah to identify and prepare an inventory of civil infrastructure constructed by Karnataka for earlier Kalasa and Bhandura diversion schemes that has become redundant or has been abandoned.
The demand follows the Central Water Commission’s technical appraisal of a revised lift diversion scheme. Goa has asked the Union ministry to take action on that appraisal, seeking either its revocation or that it be kept in abeyance.
The requests reflect the administrative layers involved in the Mhadei dispute. Political engagement between the neighbouring states is taking place alongside demands for technical inspection, regulatory review and intervention by the Union government. The Mahadayi Prawah has been identified by Goa as the body that should inspect the sites and assess the status of related civil works.
For Goa, the immediate concern is linked to both the condition of project infrastructure and water availability during a period of reduced rainfall. The state’s request for a monsoon inspection now awaits consideration by the Centre and the relevant water-management authority.
