Punjab seeks pending payment of Rs 113 cr from Haryana for maintenance of Bhakra canal

     Chandigarh, Jul 30 (PTI) Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday said that Punjab has sought a pending payment of Rs 113.24 crore for operation and maintenance of the Bhakra canal from the Haryana government.
     Commenting on the issue of the CISF deployment by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) at the Bhakra-Nangal project, he said the state government will seek a legal opinion regarding the matter.
     Cheema said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is vigorously pursuing the recovery of long-standing dues owed to Punjab by other partner states in the BBMB.
     He criticized the previous SAD-BJP and Congress governments, asserting that their neglect of Punjab's interests within the BBMB allowed other states to draw more than their allocated share of water and they failed to make timely payments.
     Addressing the media after the Cabinet meeting, Cheema said the state government has formally addressed these critical issues with the defaulting states.
     "We have found a pending liability of Rs 113.24 crore and the bill for the same has been sent to the Haryana government," he said.
     Cheema further said a thorough reconciliation process, conducted by the officials of Punjab, confirmed the outstanding amounts.
     "This includes Rs 103.92 crore due to the XEN Bhakra mainline canal division, Patiala, and Rs 9.32 crore for the Mansa canal division, Jawaharke, all pertaining to the reimbursement of actual expenditures incurred on the operation and maintenance of common carrier channels of the Bhakra systems," he added.
     The pending payment was discovered during an internal audit conducted by the Punjab government, said officials, claiming that the Haryana government had not been making the payment for maintenance of the Bhakra main line canal for the past many years.
     Regarding the Bhakra Beas Management Board's latest move of making payment of Rs 8.58 crore to the Centre for deployment of the CISF at the Bhakra-Nangal dam project, Cheema said the state government has already made it clear that the CISF deployment is unacceptable.
     The minister said that the Punjab Assembly had also passed a resolution, rejecting the Centre's proposed deployment of the CISF personnel at the Bhakra-Nangal dam project of the BBMB.
     Asserting that Punjab Police has been providing security at the dams for the last 70 years, Cheema said, "Under a well-planned conspiracy, the Centre and the Haryana government were trying to snatch Punjab's waters through such tactics."
     "We will not let the CISF be deployed nor will we bear any expenditure arising out of the deployment...We will seek a legal opinion over the matter," he added.
     In its latest move, the BBMB has made a payment of Rs 8.58 crore to the Centre for deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Bhakra-Nangal project.
     The move came despite the Punjab Assembly unanimously passing a resolution against the CISF deployment on July 11.
     The resolution stated that deployment of the CISF would increase unnecessary and avoidable financial burden on Punjab and on other partner states.
     Punjab, being the major contributor to the expenditure of the BBMB, will have to bear this additional expenditure also, it said.
     "The installations are within the territorial jurisdiction of Punjab or Himachal Pradesh. It is the duty of the state government concerned to maintain the law and order and also provide security to these installations within their respective jurisdiction as per law," the resolution said.
     The additional financial implication due to deployment of the CISF was going to be Rs 49.32 crore per annum, it said.
     Earlier, the Punjab Cabinet had withdrawn the consent to the CISF deployment at the dams in the state by the then Congress government in 2021.
     The Centre had in May sanctioned a contingent of 296 armed CISF personnel for providing a counter-terrorist security cover to the Nangal dam amid standoff between Punjab and Haryana over the sharing of water from the dam.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)