'Had met PM, done whatever I could on Mahadayi issue'

Bengaluru/Panaji: Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik on Wednesday said he had submitted a note on the Mahadayi river issue to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his meeting in December last year, and after that “whatever had to happen has happened”.

The governor said he had already done whatever he was supposed to do on the controversial issue.

“Now, it is up to the government (state government) to do the needful,” Malik told reporters on the sidelines of an event organised by the CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography near here.

Referring to his meeting with the prime minister in mid December, 2019, the governor said, “I had given the PM a note on Mahadayi (and) after that whatever had to happen has happened, that’s all. I don’t want to say anything more on it”.

When asked whether the BJP-led state government has spoken to him on the issue, Malik replied in the negative.

Goa and Karnataka are locked in a bitter dispute over sharing the water of the Mahadayi river.

A letter written by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar to the Karnataka government in October, 2019, in which he reportedly exempted the neighbouring state from taking the Environment Clearance (EC) for a project on the river, had sparked a row.

In another letter on December 18, Javadekar kept his earlier communication in abeyance. However, on December 24, he again informed the Karnataka government that the EC was not required for the project on the river.

“On the issue of Mahadayi, whatever I had to do, I have done. If the government asks for my help, I would offer it…I don’t want to talk about it,” the governor said, adding that Mahadayi has become a controversial issue.