Punjab,Haryana,UT told to meet,solve dispute

Filing a detailed reply in Court,the Haryana government had stated that the agreement reached by Chandigarh and Punjab was illegal and had no bonafide. It had also attacked the Punjab government for not cooperating with it.

“On the one hand,Punjab purports to terminate all agreements with Haryana and Rajasthan as far as Ravi and Beas water works are concerned,but,on the other hand,expects cooperation when it comes to Sutlej water works. Punjab must adopt an attitude of cooperation,” read the reply filed by Haryana,on the previous date of hearing.

The reply further read,“UT is acting unilaterally without any consultation with Haryana. No permission was ever accorded by Haryana to give 40 MGD (million gallon daily) of water to Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) and highly water deficit state. Supplies have been pushed to the brink and water is being supplied once a week”.

Taking a dig at Punjab,the state government had submitted that “Haryana has always been reasonable as far as neighbouring states are concerned. Punjab did not even permit Haryana to siphon a small quantity of 500 cusec of water from BML for carriage through the Hansi-Butana branch multi-purpose link channel to meet the drinking-water requirements of residents of southern Haryana”.

For phases V and VI of augmentation of water supply of Kajauli,Haryana had given a conditional consent subject to Chandigarh fulfilling conditions indicated during a meeting held between Haryana and Chandigarh in May 2010.

Haryana had also made it clear that “it is not agreeable to allowing Chandigarh to have Punjab use the water from Phases V and VI. Haryana is also not agreeable to Punjab’s proposal of laying a pipeline of a larger diameter in contemplation of Phases VII and VIII. If Punjab requires additional water for Mohali,it should draw the same from the Anandpur Sahib Hydel Channel”.