PANAJI: Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat on Thursday reiterated that the White Paper on Mhadei river will bring out all facts and figures and make people aware, through documentary evidences as to who did what, when and why for river Mhadei.
Reacting to Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant rejecting the opposition demand stating that there was no need for white paper on Mhadei river, Kamat said, "White paper on Mhadei will bring out all facts and figures. Let people know from documents who did what, when and why for our lifeline Mother Mhadei. "Doodh Ka Doodh, Paani Ka Paani Ho Jaaye". I hope the Chief Minister will roll back his statement and accept our demand to come out with a white paper.
The "Dry Days" in Goa have already begun with reports of water from Mhadei basin already diverted by Karnataka. The entire State will transform into "Desert" if we don't act sensibly and quickly, he cautioned. There are various claims and counter claims made by ruling as well as opposition parties and others on Mhadei issue. The government has also failed to take everyone into confidence and build a consensus on the issue of Lifeline of Goa, he said.
"I had demanded one-day Assembly session on Mhadei which would have helped in bringing out various facts and exact position of the State. However, the Chief Minister did not accept the suggestion. The united opposition had also moved an adjournment motion on the Mhadei in the recently concluded Assembly session. Unfortunately the same was disallowed," said Kamat.
Kamat further charged that the government itself had tried to politicise the issue. The Congress party had always kept out politics on Mhadei and hence he joined the all-party delegation to meet the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Prakash Javadekar), who eventually betrayed Goa.
The leader of the Opposition once again demanded that the Chief Minister should rise above party politics and bring all facts and figures in public domain and should take all experts, stakeholders into confidence on Mhadei.