The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a plea by Goa against a statement made by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa for making budget allocation to the Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project in Hubballi-Dharwad and others parts of north Karnataka.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Ajay Rastogi, however, clarified that the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal’s order of April 17, 2014, restraining any blocking of the flow of river water or its diversion into Malaprabha basin would continue to operate till other conditions were fulfilled.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Goa, contended that following the apex court’s order of February 20, and subsequent notification by the Centre on February 27 for implementation of the tribunal’s decision of August 14, 2018, Karnataka decided to go ahead and allocate funds for the project.
“There is a statement of the chief minister, though several steps including detailed project report etc were to be approved for it,” he said.
“These are emotive issues. People make statements and reverberation is felt in Goa,” he said.
To this, the bench said, “Your apprehension on newspaper report cannot be taken note of.” Karnataka was represented by senior advocate Shyam Divan and Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi.
The top court refused to entertain the application filed on certain statements attributed to the chief minister. It also noted that applications seeking further clarification by the states under section 5(3) of the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, were pending before the tribunal.
In its application in the top court, Goa said with diversion of water, its lifeline, faced imminent threat of choking because of reduction of water flow and consequent disruption of its ecology. It sought a direction to restrain Karnataka from acting upon any approvals from the Union government for diversion of water outside the basin.
It also asked the court to allow a joint inspection of the site by a team of officials from the three riparian states or the Central Water Commission.
The tribunal has allocated Karnataka 13.42 tmc ft, Goa 24 tmc ft and Maharashtra 1.3 tmc ft in its final decision. All three states have challenged the validity of the decision, which has been fixed for consideration by the top court on July 15.