Day after new water quota kicks in: Haryana says getting 10,300 cusecs, Punjab contradicts: ‘agreed to share only 9,525 cusecs’

On Thursday, Haryana Irrigation and Water Resources Minister Shruti Choudhry reiterated the numbers claiming BBMB has met the state’s water demand. Punjab Water Resources Minister Barinder Goyal, however, told The Indian Express that the state had only agreed to share 9,525 cusecs of water with Haryana for now. “We need 3,000 cusecs for our own needs. The Bhakra Main Line (BML) has a capacity of only 12,500 cusecs. We will take our share first. The rest will be released to Haryana”.

Earlier, Choudhry claimed that BBMB has allocated 10,300 cusecs to Haryana in the new distribution cycle. “A technical committee meeting of BBMB was held on May 15, in which 10,300 cusecs of water were allocated to Haryana. The state of Haryana had submitted a demand letter on May 19 to the Executive Engineer of BML, Patiala, requesting the release of the allocated water at the Haryana contact points, 3,600 cusecs at RD 160000 of Narwana Branch and 6,700 cusecs at RD 390000 of BML.

The next day, the Executive Engineer of BML Patiala forwarded the demand letter to BBMB. On May 21, BBMB began increasing water flow in the Nangal Hydel Channel from Lohand at 1:35pm, as per the operations manual,” said Choudhry.

She said that out of the 10,300 cusecs reaching Haryana’s contact points, 3,600 cusecs would be released into the Narwana Branch, which would fulfil the needs of Jind, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Jhajjar, and southern districts of Haryana.

The remaining 6,700 cusecs received at RD 390000’ of BML will be supplied to meet the demands of Hisar, Sirsa, and Fatehabad districts through the Barwala Link Channel and the tail end of the BML group, she said.

Goyal, however, said, “We have such gadgets that we know about each and every cusec of water being released. We are getting hourly reports. We are releasing only 9,525 cusecs to Haryana. They can claim anything.”

He also accused Haryana of politicising the issue and blowing it out of proportion. “Haryana is our younger brother. We have no issue in sharing their rightful share. But they have been using extra water. We do not know whether they waste it but they have been using it injudiciously. They used all their quota before March 23. When they feared that people would go after them for not supplying water, they tried to use BBMB to coerce us and release our share. We have told them that they will get water but we will not allow them to overdraw it,” Goyal added.

A functionary of Punjab government said, “We are sitting at the headworks. We will first draw our own 3,000 cusecs. Only then Haryana will get the rest.”

He added that as of now only 11,700 cusecs was being released and it was being increased every hour. “The canals cannot take such high volume immediately. Breaches can happen if large volume is released at once,” he said. The Wednesday’s rain had raised the water level in the dams. The inflow in Bhakra dam increased by 9,000 cusecs. It was 20,607 cusec on Wednesday while on Thursday it was recorded at 29,110 cusecs.

Haryana minister said that after the water reaches the state, there will be no shortage from Friday onwards, and both drinking and irrigation needs will be met. She also accused the Punjab Chief Minister of politicising the water issue, stating that Haryana also has historical records of water allocations from BBMB and urged Punjab not to deny Haryana its rightful share.