Chandigarh: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government on Monday passed a resolution during a one-day special assembly session vowing not to spare even a drop of water from its share for Haryana.
It may be recalled that Haryana and Punjab have been at loggerheads for over a week over the issue of river water-sharing after Bhakra-Beas Management Board (BBMB) decided to release more water to Haryana despite Mann’s strong objections to it. The Punjab government refused to release extra water, claiming that Haryana had already exhausted 103% of its annual allocated share of water, while Haryana held Punjab indulged in “dirty politics” by twisting the facts.
The Punjab water resources minister Barinder Kumar Goyal, who moved the resolution, held that the 4,000 cusecs of water given to Haryana for drinking purpose will be continued as a matter of humanity, but not a drop more than that.
Reading out the resolution, Goyal said that BJP had been trying to take away the rights of Punjab through BBMB and its governments in Haryana and at the Centre. The BBMB has become a mere puppet of the BJP government at the Centre as at its meetings, Punjab is neither heard nor Punjabis’ rights are being taken care of, he added.
The resolution said that a network of canals and water courses has been built on a large scale since the AAP government took over in 2022. Until 2021, only 22% of Punjab’s fields received canal water while today 60% are covered, therefore, every drop of Punjab’s water has become precious and it no longer has spare water to give to any other state, he added.
Stating that Haryana with its about 3 crore population needs only 1,700 cusecs of water to meet all drinking and other human needs, Goyal held that now Haryana demands 8,500 cusecs of water while Punjab does not have extra water to meet its demand.
The resolution which condemned the “illegal and constitutional’’ meeting of the BBMB, also considered the Dam Safety Act 2021 to be an attack on the rights of the Punjab.
Leader of opposition (LoP) and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa also extended full support to the resolution. However, Bajwa and Mann also entered into heated arguments over the issue as to why Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh stayed away from BBMB meeting and the former asked Mann to clarify AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal’s stand on the water rights of Punjab.
