Karnataka   

Move to send team to Delhi okayed

PANAJI: The Goa Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed the recent suggestion of a Cabinet sub-committee to send an all-party delegation to New Delhi to impress upon the Union Government the need for expediting the process to set up a tribunal to resolve the Mhadei river water dispute between Goa and Karnataka.

Addressing presspersons after the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said that the delegation would meet the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Water Resources to pursue Goa’s case for a tribunal in view of reports that the Karnataka Government had been continuing with work at the disputed Mhadei river basin site.

The Chief Minister said that the Union Government had filed a reply before the Supreme Court which states that “it has decided to refer the dispute to a tribunal and that the process to set up the tribunal is under way”.

The Chief Minister said that this has been Goa’s case before the Supreme Court and the Government of Karnataka has given an undertaking to the Supreme Court that it would not divert the river water.

“We will submit to the Union Government all evidence of recent activities being taken up by the Government of Karnataka at the site and also present it before the Supreme Court in the course of time,” Mr. Kamat said.

The Cabinet has decided to set up a three-member State Law Commission to take up various issues such as reforms in legal system, study outdated laws in force, modification and simplification of certain laws.

The Chief Minister said the term of the commission would be of one year and the commission would be headed by a senior person with a “legal background” not necessarily a retired judge.

By another decision, the Government has mooted a scheme of one-time settlement for electricity consumers who are defaulters and are facing revenue recovery cases.

Nearly 5,000 families would benefit under the scheme under which defaulters whose accumulated arrears had reached up to Rs. 20,000 and face temporary or permanent disconnection, will have to pay only the principle amount of their bill to get reconnection.

“The idea is not so much about revenue recovery or revenue loss but to see that no poor people are left without electricity on account of their inability to pay their accumulated arrears,” said the Chief Minister.

To a question on power bill arrears, Mr. Kamat said that the State had to get Rs. 168 crore in power bill arrears from bigger power consumers across different categories.

He said that the Government would come out with a similar scheme for the poor for water supply.

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