Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Friday accused the Aam Aadmi Party-ruled Delhi government of playing ‘petty politics’ on the issue of water sharing, and said that Delhi should convince the Punjab government to release Haryana’s legitimate share of water at the earliest.
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He said that Haryana is releasing more than 1,049 cusecs of water to Delhi currently. “We can’t deprive Haryana of its water and give Delhi more than their legitimate share,” he said.
“Instead of playing petty politics on the water issues, the Delhi government should convince the Punjab government to release Haryana’s legitimate share of water at the earliest. I promise that the day Punjab will give our share, Haryana will increase Delhi’s current water share,” said Mr. Lal, at a press conference here.
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The Chief Minister said that whenever the Delhi Jal Board knocks at the doors of both the Supreme Court and the High court, it has always been proved that Haryana is releasing more than 1,049 cusecs of water from the Munak headworks to Delhi against their share of 719 cusecs, thus providing Yamuna water to Delhi as per Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) allocation existing on this date.
“Haryana has been supplying water to Hyderpur Water Treatment Plant, Nangloi Water Treatment Plant and Wazirabad-Chandrawal Water Treatment Plant in Delhi,” said Mr. Lal.
He said that on February 29, 1996, Supreme Court had directed Haryana to provide an additional 330 cusecs of water per day to Delhi. “Earlier, Delhi’s share in water was 719 cusecs per day. In compliance with these orders, Delhi is being given 1049 cusecs of water every day. Delhi government is now misleading about the water issue, which is very unfortunate,” said Mr. Lal.
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The Chief Minister said that in the last few days, the State had certainly faced a power shortage of up to 1800 MW. This power shortage was due to the non-availability of power from multiple sources and as summers too had arrived earlier.
“The electricity consumption has increased this year as compared to last year. At present, the demand for electricity is 700 to 800 lakh units more than last year. Also, presently the maximum demand of the state has reached 9874 MW while the power supply is also 9874 MW. Since May 16, we have been able to supply electricity equal to the consumption,” said Mr. Lal.
The Chief Minister also launched a new portal ‘e-Fasal Kshatipoorti’. He said that with the launch of this portal a step has been taken towards ensuring transparency in the system of application, verification and compensation for crop loss. “Besides this, this portal would also replace the age-old manual compensation system as now compensation would also be given online,” he added.