Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday said the State government was discharging all obligations set forth by the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) in terms of share and allocation of water to Delhi.
“We decided to release 120 cusecs of additional raw water to Delhi via the river course at the request of Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources. I wish to emphasise that due to acute shortage of water in the Yamuna, Haryana has to shift to a five -group rotation instead of four groups every January. Despite the consequent adverse impact on drinking water supplies to thousands of our villages and several towns, we have never reduced the supply to Delhi. In fact, presently we are supplying 120 cusecs over and above our obligations,” said Mr. Khattar in a demi-official letter sent to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in reply to his letter.
“It is a harsh fact that the issue of shortage of raw water at Wazirabad and its impact on supplies of VVIP areas has been raised by the Delhi Jal Board for the past 20 years. The current alleged shortage of about 60 million gallons per day (MGD) is 6.7% of the total treatment capacity of more than 900 MGD. This can easily be resolved through internal actions of the DJB,” said Mr. Khattar.
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Mr. Khattar added: “As for your (Mr. Kejriwal) request, we were supplying about 1,050 cusecs from Munak Canal when Delhi decided to drag Haryana into multiple litigations. We started releasing additional 150 cusecs from Munak, so that about 100-120 cusecs may be received at Wazirabad via DD-8 in the river course. We have decided to extend the period of release of this additional water up to June 30, 2018, subject to the condition that Delhi withdraws all cases from the NGT and Delhi High Court.”