Panaji, Mar 13 (IANS): Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, when the former is reported to have pitched Goa's case in the ongoing inter-state dispute with Karnataka over Mhadei river water, is a pre-Zilla Panchayat election jumla, the Congress in Goa alleged on Friday.

Speaking with reporters in Panaji on Friday, state Congress President Girish Chodankar also dared PM Modi to make a public statement on his assurance given to Sawant to protect the coastal state's interests in the ongoing dispute with Karnataka.

"This is another jumla to woo voters for the forthcoming Zilla Panchayat elections. The art of fooling people is mastered by the BJP, and the visit of the Chief Minister to Delhi is part of the same," Chodankar told reporters in Panaji.

"PM Modi must make a public statement on his assurance of protecting Goa's interest on Mhadei and resumption of Mining in Goa, as claimed by our CM," Chodankar also said. Elections to 50 ZP constituencies are scheduled for March 22.

On Thursday, after meeting Modi, Sawant had said, that he had discussed the ongoing Mhadei issue, mining resumption, construction of the Mopa international airport and the upcoming Zilla Panchayat elections with the Prime Minister.

"The Prime Minister has assured his continued support and co-operation for Goa's cause," Sawant had tweeted after his meeting.

Sawant has been under pressure from the Opposition as well as civil society for not doing enough, to stall the Karnataka's Kalasa-Banduri project, which is aimed at diverting water from the Mhadei basin to the water-deficit basin of the Malaprabha river, also located in Karnataka.

His meeting with the Prime Minister comes at a time of growing discord between Karnataka and Goa over the sharing of the waters of the Mhadei, an inter-state river.

An inter-state water dispute Tribunal after hearing the over two-decade-old Mhadei river water sharing dispute between Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, in August 2018 had 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.

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra governments have challenged several provisions of the award, even as the central government, earlier this month, formally notified the provisions of the Tribunal's award.

Goa has claimed that construction of the Kalasa-Banduri water diversion project, across the river, to divert water from the Mhadei basin to the basin of the Malaprabha river in Karnataka, would cause "ecological devastation" in Goa.