Excessive drama prevailed at Nangal dam in Rupnagar district on Thursday when Punjab AAP minister Harjot Singh Bains openly locked Bhakra Beas Administration Board chairman Manoj Tripathi on the dam’s visitor home regardless of the excessive court docket directive to the Aam Aadmi Get together authorities to not intervene within the working of the BBMB. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann additionally rushed to the dam and declared BBMB officers wouldn’t be allowed to launch water to Haryana.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann addressing Aam Aadmi Get together staff, whereas state schooling minister Harjot Singh Bains appears on after locking the the Nangal dam visitor home gate throughout BBMB chairman Manoj Tripathi’s go to on Thursday. (HT Photograph)
Accompanied by round protesting 50 Aam Aadmi Get together (AAP) staff, Bains introduced: “We have locked the BBMB chairman inside Sutlej Bhawan (the dam’s guest house) as he came here to attempt to release water from the Nangal dam to Haryana. When Punjab is struggling with ongoing Indo-Pakistan tensions at the border, the BBMB chairman is making such an attempt. He should be booked for treason.”
Whereas Tripathi waited, Bains mentioned he ought to meet the Punjab CM and different officers in Chandigarh. Quickly, Mann arrived amid sloganeering by AAP staff, who’ve been protesting for the previous one week towards the BBMB choice to launch water to Haryana from Nangal dam. “I won’t allow BBMB officials to release water to Haryana at any cost,” Mann declared, including “I will come again to Nangal dam to prevent them if the need arises.”
The BBMB chairman had visited the dam to supervise water regulation after the Punjab and Haryana excessive court docket on Wednesday restrained the Punjab authorities from interfering within the board’s work in Nangal. The court docket additionally requested the BBMB to implement the Might 2 order of the Union residence ministry for releasing extra water to Haryana. The house ministry had informed the Punjab authorities to launch 4,500 cusecs of surplus water to Haryana for eight days, as was agreed in a BBMB assembly with the associate states on April 23. The court docket mentioned if Punjab didn’t agree with the Centre’s choice of offering a complete of 8,500 cusecs a day of surplus water as sought by Haryana, then it may strategy the Centre.
When contacted, BBMB officers refused to touch upon the incident.
Union minister and BJP chief Ravneet Singh Bittu, nonetheless, demanded that chief minister Mann and minister Harjot Singh Bains needs to be booked for illegally detaining the BBMB chairman and performing towards nationwide curiosity. “The country is going through a tough period and the CM is worried about his media space,” he mentioned. “The BBMB chairman can go to his office or rest house. Will the chairman himself open or close the gates of the dam? When the matter is already in the high court and Supreme Court and the state assembly has already passed a resolution saying that not a single drop of water will be given to any state, why this drama?” Bittu mentioned.
The board had moved the excessive court docket, stating that Punjab Police personnel had forcibly taken management of dam operations following the current directive to launch 8,500 cusecs of water to Haryana and different states. “State of Punjab and any of its functionaries, including police personnel, are restrained from interfering in the day-to-day functioning, operation and regulation of the Bhakra Nangal Dam and Lohand control room water regulation offices managed by BBMB,” the excessive court docket mentioned on Wednesday.
A division bench, comprising chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sumeet Goel expressed critical concern over the alleged conduct of the Punjab administration, evaluating the state of affairs to actions taken towards hostile nations. “We are doing this to our enemy country. Let us not do this within our states,” it remarked through the listening to.
The dispute started on April 23 when Haryana sought 8,500 cusecs of water, 4,500 cusecs greater than its ordinary share, from the Bhakra-Nangal challenge, citing a extreme ingesting water scarcity in its western districts. Mann rejected the request, and the matter was taken up by the BBMB, which authorised Haryana’s request, with member states Rajasthan and Delhi voting in favour. Himachal Pradesh abstained, and Punjab voted towards it. Regardless of the choice, Punjab refused to open extra sluice gates on the Nangal dam, calling the transfer “unprecedented and forcible.” Haryana, in response, threatened to strategy the Supreme Court docket to implement its allocation.