Three Punjab ministers join AAP dharna at Nangal Dam

Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO, Transport Minister Laljit Singh Bhullar and Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal joined the protest by AAP workers at the Nangal Dam on Tuesday. The protest is being held against the BBMB decision to release additional water to Haryana.

Addressing the gathering, Harbhajan Singh ETO accused the previous state governments of not taking up the issue seriously. He said Punjab had suffered ecologically and economically due to the “unjust” distribution of water from the BBMB projects.

Instead of making the canal water available for irrigation, the earlier governments promoted the use of tubewell water. That drained the groundwater in the state. The state also paid the economic cost of providing free power for tubewells, he said.

He said the present government had allocated Rs 4,500 crore for promoting surface water irrigation in the state. Now that the canal irrigation system had been revived, the state needed its full quota of water from the BBMB.

Despite the fact that Haryana had consumed its share of water from the BBMB, the Punjab was giving 4,000 cusecs per day water to Haryana for drinking water schemes, he added.

However, the BBMB authorities, backed by the BJP government at the Centre, were trying to force the state to release more water to Haryana. Punjab would not succumb to pressure to surrender its quota of water in the BBMB projects. “We have been forced to stage dharna due to the dictatorial attitude of the BBMB,” he said.