Maharashtra defies court orders, resumes Virdi dam work

KERI: Although the Mhadei Water Disputes Tribunal has given directives to Maharashtra not to resume work on the Virdi dam, for the last 2-3 months work on the dam is going on secretly.
Some Virdi villagers said that work on the Virdi dam is in progress and that a stone crusher unit was operational during the last few days with blasting for stones being done.
Pandurang Gawas from Shiroli, a social activist who visited the dam site recently, told TOI, “When we visited the site, trucks and a JCB were working. Work of excavation was going on and heaps of stones for construction are lying at the spot.”
Shrikant Patil, the superintending engineer of water resources department, Goa, said, “Our team will visit the site in next 2-3 days to ascertain what type of work is going on. Both, Maharashtra and Karnataka governments were asked to maintain status quo in the Mhadei matter till further orders by the tribunal.”
Ulhas Naik, the official of V I Shetty and company, involved in the dam work, said, “Presently, we have stopped all type of work at the site. For a stone crusher unit, we have received environmental clearance from the authority concerned on December 16, 2011 for a period of five years and the gram panchayat of Virdi too has given no objection certificate on February 18, 2015.”