Parrikar offers to release Mandovi water to K’taka

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has offered release of 7.56 thousand million cubic feet (TMCF) of water from the Mandovi river to Karnataka for drinking water “on humanitarian ground” in the dispute hanging before the Mahadayi Inter-State River Water Tribunal for the last two decades.

Karnataka BJP President and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has released a letter Parrikar wrote in this regard following their meeting here two days ago at the residence of BJP President Amit Shah.

He read out the letter at a public rally in Hubballi in the presence of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who flagged off the second phase of the party’s “parivarthan yatra.”

Parrikar’s letter addressed to Yeddyurappa, who will be the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate in the Karnataka Assembly elections in coming summer, reads: “Issue of drinking water, although is one of the issues pending before the (Mahadayi) Tribunal, in principle the state of Goa would not oppose the reasonable and justified quantum of water meant to be utilised for drinking. However the same needs to be discussed bilaterally as suggested by the Honourable Tribunal... it is to confirm it to you on humanitarian ground, Government of Goa is willing to consider the request to work out an amicable settlement, strictly restricted to drinking water only to the droughtprone areas.”