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Northern Zonal Council meet: HP water cess, right over Chandigarh, flood relief on Punjab agenda
Shah will preside over the meeting of the NZC which comprises Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh. Punjab is hosting the 31st NZC
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Monday said he would raise all issues concerning the state with Union home minister Amit Shah at the 31st meeting of the Northern Zonal Council (NZC) beginning in Amritsar on Tuesday.
Shah will preside over the meeting of the NZC which comprises Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh and the Union Territories of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh. Punjab is hosting the 31st NZC.
As per the top officials of the Punjab government, the state will seek an increase in compensation for losses in the state due to floods in the month of July.
The state government would also raise the issue of Punjab having sole right over the union territory of Chandigarh as the state’s capital city and the process of land allotment to Haryana in Chandigarh for setting up an additional building of its state assembly and Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Generation Bill which seeks cess over water flowing from the state into Punjab, the official said.
In March this year, the Himachal Pradesh Vidhan Sabha passed the Hydropower Generation Bill to repeal the Himachal Pradesh Water Cess on Hydropower Generation Ordinance, promulgated by the governor on February 15. The Himachal Pradesh government aims to mop up ₹4,000 crore from the cess on hydropower from all 172 hydel projects in the state. In response, the Punjab Vidhan Sabha also passed a resolution, declaring the water cess proposed by HP as ‘illegal’, and sought its immediate withdrawal. The union home minister Amit Shah will chair tomorrow’s meeting in which the chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan will be participating along with the administrator of Chandigarh and lieutenant governors of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Delhi.
Mann, who reached Amritsar on Monday, shared his pictures with Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Delhi lieutenant governor V K Saxena on X.
“We have arrived at Guru Nagari Sri Amritsar Sahib for a very important meeting of the North Zone Council... Tomorrow a very important meeting is going to be held under the chairmanship of Home Minister Amit Shah,” Mann posted on X.
Punjab chief secretary Anurag Verma is also camping in Amritsar to oversee the arrangements. “The state government has made elaborate arrangements for the smooth conduct of the meeting,” said a top officer from Punjab.
“The compensation given by the Centre for losses due to natural calamities is very obsolete, and the formula of giving compensation doesn’t cover the actual losses, so we would push for devising a new method for giving compensation,” said an officer of the state government.
Last month, the state urged the visiting central team to relax norms for increasing disaster relief for victims, as it worked out losses to ₹1,300 crore due to floods. The CM has already taken up the matter with the union home minister.
In a communication sent to the Central minister, CM pointed out that there is no shortfall in the state disaster response fund (SDRF) and only a change in the norms for compensating the damage is required so that the loss of the people can be compensated completely.
Informed sources in the state government revealed that the state government would also object to handing over 110 megawatt Shanan power generating project situated in Jogindernagar in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh as the 99-year lease will end in March 2024.
The Punjab government, however, claims that the project is in continuous ownership and possession of the state government.
The state will also take forward its objection to converting Panjab University into a Central University.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal asked Mann to take a firm stand on all important issues concerning Punjab, including the state’s inalienable right over Chandigarh.
In a statement here, senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said since the Union home minister would chair the meeting, it was of utmost importance to clarify that Chandigarh belonged to Punjab and that no land could be allotted in the Union territory for constructing a separate assembly building by Haryana.
The SAD leader said the CM should also declare that the character of Panjab University could not be changed and that there was no question of it giving affiliation to any Haryana college. In addition, Cheema said, Mann was also duty-bound to clarify the principled stand of Punjab on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and the sharing of river waters with neighbouring states.
