Panaji, Feb 29 (IANS): Former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar, here on Saturday, demanded Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's resignation for letting down the state in the dispute with Karnataka over Mhadei river water.

"The government has no right to stay in power. They have sold Goa and its people in the battle for the Mhadei river," Velingkar said.

Calling the Mhadei river the lifeline of Goa, he said the Sawant government was engaged in the act of destroying it by not taking up the dispute vigorously.

While Karnataka had claimed the apex court's nod for the award notification as a major victory towards the efforts to divert the Mhadei river water through the Kalasa-Banduri dam project, the Sawant government and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) insisted that the nod was merely technical in nature.

The opposition parties said the state government "did not even oppose" the Karnataka counsel's plea over the award's notification.