Bureaucrat, 3 engineers at forefront of state’s defiance
The past one week, ever since Haryana raised the demand for additional 8,500 cusecs of water from the Bhakra Dam, has seen four men from the state’s Water Resources Department play a key role in handling the situation.
If the Principal Secretary of the department, Krishan Kumar, played a pivotal role in convincing the state government on why the state could ill afford to give additional water to Haryana after it exhausted its allocated share, the three other officers withstood immense pressure from the Bhakra Beas Management Board, where they are on deputation from Punjab, refusing to release additional water.
The Director, Water Regulation, Akashdeep Singh, from the Punjab cadre, who is incharge for releasing the water from the Nangal Dam, was transferred by the BBMB on Wednesday night.
He was replaced by a Haryana cadre officer in the hope that the latter would implement the BBMB order of releasing 8,500 cusecs to Haryana.
Akashdeep, whose transfer orders said that he was being transferred on his own asking, immediately shot off a mail to BBMB, saying he never asked for a transfer.
The Chief Engineer posted at Nangal, Charanpreet Singh, refused to abide by the order issued to him to accept the joining of Akashdeep’s replacement, Haryana cadre officer Sanjeev Kumar, on the pretext that Kumar had not submitted his joining report to him, but joined at the head office.
He used this plea to also not relieve Akashdeep from his charge as the Director, Water Regulation.
He also refused to release additional water to Haryana from the dam, saying he would abide only by the regulation manual, which required the Punjab Government to place an indent for the purpose.
The fourth person to have played a key role was Executive Engineer Amit Sahota.
After Chief Engineer Charanpreet Singh refused to abide by the BBMB orders, the officials in BBMB started pressuring Amit Sahota to do the needful, which he refused.
The engineer reportedly said he could not open the gates of the dam to release additional water to Haryana as there was a huge posse of cops deployed near the dam.
Bains, Deputy Speaker visit Nangal dam again
Mohali: Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains and Deputy Speaker Jai Krishan Singh Rouri on Friday evening visited Nangal Dam to ensure that Punjab doesn’t allow excess water go to Haryana. They also met Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers, safeguarding the dam round the clock, besides taking updates from officials on the current situation.
Punjab