Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], December 13 (ANI): Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday blamed the Congress for not protecting the interests of Karnataka in the Mahadayi dispute with Goa.

"It was the Congress party who was responsible for the controversial Mahadayi project. The party supremo Sonia Gandhi during the election campaign in Goa declared that not even a drop of water will be diverted anywhere" he added.

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On being asked about the recent tweet by the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that the Congress would provide internal reservation (reservation for communities among Scheduled Castes) when it came to power, Bommai said, "the Congress had done nothing more than organise a conference and make an assurance in this regard before the previous polls."

Bommai said Congress had ignored the demand for increasing the quota for SCs and STs, which had been pending for the last 40 years. He added that Congress could not deceive people by assuring them of internal reservation.

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Karnataka and Goa are fighting a two-year-long dispute over the sharing of the Mahadayi river water in the Supreme Court after both parties expressed reservations about the award by the Mahadayi dispute tribunal in 2018.

Claiming it would cause "ecological devastation" in Goa, the state has also opposed the diversion of water from the Mahadayi river basin through the Kalasa-Kanduri project. (ANI)

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