Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday vehemently opposed the Union Government’s decision to waive off the conditions for a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to draw water for Himachal Pradesh’s Water Supply and Irrigation schemes. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister said that it is “unfortunate” that the Centre had issued directions to the Chairman of Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) for the same last month. With these instructions, Chief Minister Mann said, the government has directed the BBMB to do away with the present mechanism of NOC with the condition that the cumulative water drawn by the Government of Himachal Pradesh is kept below their analogous share in power or 7.19 percent as decided by the Supreme Court.
Mann further said that the BBMB shall only carry out technical feasibility studies for the drawing of water by Himachal Pradesh for water supply or irrigation projects if they involve engineering structures of BBMB and convey the necessary technical requirements to Himachal Pradesh within 60 days from receipt of such request. The CM said that this decision is completely “unjustified, baseless, and a grave injustice” to Punjab since no water is required to be allocated to Himachal Pradesh out of the River Sutlej and Beas as per the water agreements.
He added that though the Supreme Court granted a share to Himachal Pradesh, it only related to power and not with regard to water sharing. Moreover, Mann said, since the sharing of water is an inter-state dispute, no unilateral directions can be issued to share waters with other states. The Chief Minister further said that BBMB was constituted under Section 79(1) of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, as per which, its mandate is only for administration, maintenance and operation of the dam and reservoirs and it is, therefore, is not authorised to give any water out of the rivers to states other than its partner states.
