Political battle erupts over MC claims on water crisis in Chandigarh

A political battle erupted today over the Municipal Corporation (MC) officials’ claims that the dispute between Punjab and Haryana over Bhakra Canal water had affected the city’s water supply for over two months. The engineering wing officials made this revelation in the MC House meeting yesterday.

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Former Mayor and BJP leader Subhash Chawla blamed the AAP government in Punjab for creating the water crisis in Chandigarh. Chawla said the residents of Chandigarh, which is the capital of Punjab and Haryana, should not be made to suffer for a political tussle between the two states over canal water.

Vijay Pal Singh, president of Chandigarh AAP, said the BJP-led civic body had come up with these excuses to conceal their failures. They promised 24x7 water supply to the city residents, but nothing happened on the ground. Many tubewells in villages are non-functional. The MC has failed to ensure proper water supply. The residents of Manimajra had complained about muddy water supply for a long time.

Officials of the engineering wing blamed the inter-state dispute for water supply disruption after councillors raised the issue of water shortage in their respective areas. The officials, however, claimed the city is now getting full water supply.

They said Chandigarh received almost 20 per cent less water than the normal supply for two months.

At present, the MC is getting around 60 MGD through the Kajauli waterworks, while the remaining 25 MGD supply is met through the tubewells located across the city.

The pipelines supplying water to Chandigarh from Kajauli ha;ve been laid at a certain level and if the water level goes below the pipelines, then the supply pressure gets affected.

Since the water level in the Bhakra Canal came down by almost two feet, the water supply to the city was affected, said the officials.

They also claimed that the Punjab officials did not inform them officially about the reasons for the reduction in the water level in the waterworks reservoirs for over a month.

Meanwhile, an official of the Municipal Corporation said when the civic body raised the issue with the Punjab officials, they cited repairs as the reason for a reduction in the supply to Chandigarh.

When the canal water dispute deepened and was highlighted in the media, they came to know about the real reason behind a reduction in the canal water supply. The normal water supply has now been restored, they said.