Bengaluru, Jan 3,2023: The Aam Aadmi Party’s Karnataka unit on Tuesday attacked the ruling BJP in the state and at the Centre over the approval given by the Central Water Commission (CWC) for the Kalasa-Banduri project, saying it was just with an eye on the coming Assembly elections.

Addressing reporters, AAP leader and senior counsel who represented Karnataka in the Mahadayi Tribunal, Brijesh Kalappa said: “Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has just put up a post which looks like the CWC consent letter. It doesn’t have a date. It is not tenable to project that the double-engine BJP government had given justice to Karnataka regarding the Mahadayi project.”

Earlier, irrespective of the concerns raised by Goa, on April 30, 2002, the government had given in principle consent. But, five months later, the same decision was kept in suspension. One should not forget the betrayal committed by the BJP government with the people of Karnataka, he claimed.

In 2006, the Goa government approached the Supreme Court, and it formed the Mahadayi Water Dispute Tribunal (MWDT), which had given a verdict on August 14, 2018.

“If the claims of the BJP were true, the CWC should have given its consent in 2019, when B.S. Yediyurappa took charge as the CM. Why did they wait till the fag end of the tenure of the BJP government?” Kalappa asked.

The Kalasa-Banduri project, which became an inter-state dispute between Karnataka and Goa, was proposed in 1978. Then it was called the ‘Mahadayi project’.

The project is being opposed by Goa and Maharashtra, while the Central government approved its Detailed Project Report (DPR) on December 29.

The people of north Karnataka were agitating for the implementation of the project for more than three decades as it would end the water crisis in major districts of the region.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had stated that this is the commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the centre towards the development of the state.