Punjab political parties unanimous on not giving extra water from Bhakra to Haryana

All political parties of Punjab have unanimously decided that not a single drop of extra water will be given to Haryana from the Bhakra dam.

The representatives of all political parties, who had come here for an all-party meeting, convened by the Punjab government on Friday morning, backed the state government to decide the next course of action for “safeguarding the rights of Punjab on its waters”.

The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, lasted two hours.

Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who, along with senior BJP leader Manoranjan Kalia, was present in the meeting, said the state unit of the party rallied behind the state government on the issue of release of additional water to Haryana, after the neighbouring state had exhausted its allocated share for the September 21-May 20 depletion period. Jakhar reiterated that Punjab had no water to spare for Haryana, and this injustice to Punjab will not be tolerated, though he said the confrontation should have been avoided.

All eyes are now on the Special Session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha convened on May 5.

CM Mann said that after hearing the views of all political parties, the state government will now prepare an agenda for the session and give it to the parties. “Let me reiterate that there is no politics and no different political line on the sensitive issue of safeguarding the state’s waters, and we are all together. The governor has already given approval for convening the session,” he said, adding that they will later seek time from the Prime Minister. Leaders of all political parties have agreed to join the state government representatives for taking up the issue with the PM.

After the meeting, Mann said the decision to release water to Haryana was being forced on Punjab. “They exhausted their share of water. On humanitarian grounds, we gave them an additional 4,000 cusecs on April 4. You can’t force Punjabis to give in to this,” he said.

Congress leader Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa said all party leaders had backed the state government for the future course of action.