Panaji, Dec 25 (IANS): The Opposition has once again accused the BJP-led coalition governments in Goa and Karnataka of betraying the interests of the coastal state in the dispute with Karnataka over Mhadei river water.

A combined opposition late on Tuesday slammed Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, as well as Union Minister for Environment and Forests Prakash Javadekar, after the latter on Tuesday wrote to Karnataka's Home Minister Basavraj Bommai saying the southern state "can start the work on Kalasa-Banduri canal project" after the Mhadei Interstate Water Dispute Tribunal's award is formally notified by the Central government.

A Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) official had written to the Karnataka government on December 18 that a green clearance given by Javadekar had been kept in abeyance till further notice, after the Goa government had raised an objection to the Kalasa-Banduri water diversion project across the Mhadei river, which according to Sawant would cause "ecological devastation" in Goa.

Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar called the latest letter by Javadekar to Bommai a "special gift" of betrayal to Goa on Christmas eve.

"The development clearly shows that BJP and NDA can not be trusted anymore in Goa and the Congress would see to it that this government standing on crutches of opportunist defectors is rejected by the people of Goa," Chodankar said, accusing Sawant of surrendering himself to the diktats of the BJP central leadership.

Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai also accused Sawant of lying to the people of Goa. "This is an unequivocal clearance to Karnataka for the Kalasa project. This is highly distressing," Sardesai said.

Reacting to the accusations, Sawant has urged people to not panic. "The said letter does not damage the rightful claims of the state of Goa in any manner whatsoever on the issue of Mhadei river," Sawant tweeted.

Goa and Karnataka are locked in a two decade-long inter-state dispute over the sharing of Mhadei river waters. The already vexed conflict between the two states became further exacerbated when two months before the crucial Karnataka Assembly bypolls, the MoEF gave a green nod to Karnataka's Rs 841 crore Kalasa-Banduri dam project.

The Goa government is opposed to the project which aims to divert water from the Mhadei river basin to the deficit basin of the Malaprabha river, ostensibly for drinking water purpose.

The Mhadei river originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea near Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra. An inter-state water disputes tribunal, set up by the Central government, after hearing the decades long water sharing dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, allotted 13.42 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) (including 3.9 TMC for diversion into the depleted Malaprabha river basin) to Karnataka and 1.33 TMC to Maharashtra in August 2018.