Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal:-
- An application was filed by the Goa government in the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal in New Delhi seeking action against Karnataka for breach and disobedience of the order of injunction dated April 17, 2014 passed by the tribunal. The State government’s application has been filed under the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956.
Background:
- Karnataka and Goa, the riparian states of the Mahadayi (known as Mandovi in Goa), have been locked in a bitter battle over the sharing of water of the river, which originates at Belagavi in Karnataka.
- In January 2018, Karnataka had built bunds to block the flow of the Mahadayi water into Goa following which Goa had filed a contempt application before the tribunal. However, Karnataka filed an affidavit, stating that it would not divert the waters and hence Goa withdrew the contempt application with liberty to file such application as and when such necessity arose.
- In July 2018, it was noticed that on account of the gradient slope that Karnataka built, Mahadayi waters was flowing into the Malaprabha basin.
- The tribunal had observed that its earlier injunction order would continue to operate until Karnataka prepared its Detailed Project Report and obtained all permission for its diversion project.