BJP state President, BS Yeddyurappa, on Sunday, told reporters that he would meet the Goa Chief Minister along with BJP MPs to discuss the issue.
“I will go to Goa at the end of this month or the beginning of next month along with BJP MPs to hold dialogue with Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. We will ask him to take a stand in the larger interest of the people of seven districts of Karnataka. It is a known fact that there is severe shortage of drinking water. The BJP has promised to deliver justice to the farmers and we will keep our word by finding a lasting solution to the issue,” Yeddyurappa said.
Successive governments have discussed the issue for years on end and the state has witnessed multiple protests by farmers in this regard, but there has been no consensus in the issue.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had, in May this year, written to both the Centre and the Goa government, to no avail.
The dispute over sharing the waters of River Mahadayi is a 30-year-old one as the negotiations for water-sharing began way back in 1985.
In 2002, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka, SM Krishna had decided to construct a canal across the Kalasa and Banduri tributaries of River Mahadayi. This heightened the dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra.
The Kalasa-Banduri project, on paper, aims at diverting 7.56 TMC of water from River Mahadayi to the Malaprabha river in Karnataka. This aims at providing relief to north Karanataka districts which are perpetually dry.
In the same year, the Goa government approached the centre and requested the setting up of a Mahadayi Water Dispute tribunal to assess the situation and grant allocation of water to the three states.
In 2002, when Parrikar was the Chief Minister, his government argued that the Kalasa Banduri project would cause ecological damage to Goa. Hence, the clearance for the project was put on the back-burner.
When the SM Krishna government could not accomplish the task, the BJP-JD(S) coalition government, in 2006, decided to begin the construction in Belagavi. Goa took up the matter with the Supreme Court for the creation of a tribunal.
The UPA government then set up the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal in 2010. Karnataka has, since then, sought the tribunal’s go ahead for the constitution of the Kalasa Banduri project.
Karnataka believes that water from the river must be used for drinking purposes instead of letting it out into the sea.
Farmers in North Karnataka have been protesting for a long time. Earlier in July, the farmers of Navalgund and Nargund areas held a silent protest for almost a week. In 2016, farmers agitated for almost 300 days in the same areas.
After the agitation took a violent turn, CM Siddaramaiah lead a delegation to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek his intervention.
On July 27, the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal rejected Karnataka’s demand for 7.56 TMC of water and protests erupted in the region.