Goa all-party delegation on Mhadei to meet PM today

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2009-01-07
PANAJI- The Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat would lead a 10-member all party delegation from the state to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, on Wednesday to seek the Centre’s immediate intervention in the dispute between Goa and Karnataka over the Mhadei water diversion issue and set up River Dispute tribunal to adjudicate the dispute between the two states as Mhadei is a inter-state river.
While the Chief Minister has been camping in the national capital over the last two days, the other members of the delegation including the ministers, MLAs from the opposition party and officials from the Water Resources Department flew in on Tuesday. The meeting has been scheduled at 5.15 p.m. on Wednesday. The Goa delegation in toto is likely to present before the Prime Minister the documentary evidence about Karnataka government undertaking work despite restrictions from the court and other central agencies.
The delegation comprises of the Home Minister, Mr Ravi Naik, the Water Resources Minister, Mr Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Mr Manohar Azgaonkar (all Congress) the Revenue Minister, Mr Jose Philip D’Souza, (NCP) the Health Minister, Mr Vishwajit Rane, (independent) the Transport Minister, Mr Ramkrishna Dhavlikar, (MGP), Mr Atanasio Monserrate (unattached) and Mr Francisco D’Souza and Mr Milind Naik (both BJP).
The Rajya Sabha member, Mr Shantaram Naik will also be part of the delegation.
The opposition BJP which had initially expressed its inability to be part of the delegation, decided to join the delegation and sent its deputy leader in the Goa Assembly to be part of the delegation. Besides, the political delegation officials of the state government including the Chief Secretary, Mr J P Singh, Water Resources Secretary, Mr Rajiv Yaduvanshi, Chief Engineer WRD, Mr Sandeep Nadkarni and two superintending engineers of the WRD would be part of the delegation headed by Mr Kamat.