AGENCIES|PANAJI

The Goa government will not approach the Supreme Court against the Mhadei inter-state water disputes tribunal’s award, for fear of an adverse order, state Water Resources Minister Vinod Palyekar said on Thursday.

Palienkar said that his statements in the past, where he maintained that “not a drop of water” would be allowed to be shared with Karnataka were political in nature and made to keep the opponent in check.

“If we go to the Supreme Court and something untoward happens, then who will be held responsible? ” he said.

“The Goa government is happy (with the tribunal’s award). The Mhadei Tribunal has given Goa good amount of water,” said Palyekar.

On August 14, the tribunal which was hearing a dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, for nearly two decades, over sharing of water from the Mhadei river, in its award had allotted 13.42 TMC (including 3.9 TMC for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) from the Mhadei river basin to Karnataka.

Maharashtra has been allotted 1.33 TMC.