Punjab skips BBMB meet on release of more water to Haryana, terms it ‘unconstitutional’

The Punjab Government today skipped a meeting convened by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to work out the modalities for the release of 4,500 cusecs of additional water from the Bhakra dam to Haryana. Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Goyal termed the meeting “unconstitutional and illegal”.

Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan had at a meeting with the BBMB and partner states yesterday advised Punjab to release extra water for eight days in a bid to end the impasse over water-sharing between the two states.

Ahead of the meeting this evening, Punjab’s Principal Secretary (Water Resources) Krishan Kumar, in a letter on behalf of the government, sought its postponement. The BBMB reportedly rejected this and went ahead with the meeting with representatives from Haryana, Rajasthan and the Indus Water Commission. The other partners — Himachal Pradesh and Delhi — also stayed away from the meeting as the issue didn’t directly impact them.

Goyal alleged that the protocol been violated while scheduling the meeting. “A seven-day notice has to be given before scheduling a special meeting. We will not participate till the BBMB follows the procedure,” he said.

The Haryana Government, represented by Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Agarwal, is learnt to have reiterated the demand for additional 4,500 cusecs to “meet urgent water requirements”.

Agarwal also asked BBMB chairman Manoj Tripathi to take up with the Punjab Government the matter of reducing police security around the Nangal dam so that the board could get control of water regulation. Punjab had stepped up police deployment around the dam on Thursday.

The representatives decided that the BBMB would apprise the Union Home Secretary about Punjab’s abstention from today’s meeting. Various modalities on resolving the current standoff were discussed, said official sources.

BBMB officials reportedly said that they could also help Punjab in the future if it needed water over and above its allocated share.

In its letter today, the Punjab Government argued that a special Assembly session had been convened on May 5 to discuss BBMB’s April 30 order asking the state to give additional water to Haryana. “The entire state machinery is busy preparing for this session, so today’s BBMB meeting should be postponed,” it read.

Punjab maintains it has already released additional 4,000 cusecs to Haryana from the Bhakra dam “on humanitarian grounds”, after Haryana exhausted its allocated share for the eight-month depletion period in March, and that it has “no water to spare”.

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