Delhi, Haryana ministers in fresh row over Hathnikund

Atishi alleged that the logs at Hathnikund barrage showed that when the water level in Delhi was rising above the danger mark, no water was released to Haryana and UP

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Haryana government continued to spar over the release of water from Hathnikund barrage and the causes behind flooding in the national capital on Sunday.

Rescue team members at a waterlogged area in Yamuna Bazar, in New Delhi on Sunday. (PTI)

Delhi minister Atishi alleged that the logs at Hathnikund barrage showed that when the water level in Delhi was rising above the danger mark, no water was released to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Haryana, on the other hand, said that the Delhi government was “playing politics over the disaster” and the water was released according to jointly agreed conditions and guidelines of the Central Water Commission.

“From Hathnikund, water goes towards three places — Delhi, Haryana, and UP. Even though in Delhi the water level was crossing the danger mark, not a single drop was diverted to Haryana and UP. Why? Was it because these two states are BJP-ruled? BJP must answer if there was this a conspiracy against people of Delhi?” said Atishi.

Meanwhile, Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said that water is not diverted to canals during such situations (when there is excess water due to rains) as the pressure can destroy the canals. “Rivers have a natural flow and manmade canals cannot take this pressure. The damage to canals are unimaginable,” said Khattar.

Stating that Haryana helped Delhi during the water crisis, Khattar said that “no one can think about saving himself by damaging others”.

“During summer, we provided our share of water to help with the crisis in Delhi. Today they are playing politics over a disaster. I don’t engage in cheap politics and no one from Haryana can think about saving us by flooding Delhi. I have sympathy for flood affected people of Delhi. We will extend whatever help can be extended,” he said.

To be sure, according to the guidelines that monitor the release of water at Hathnikund, if the flow of water exceeds 100,000 cusecs, there will be no flow into the western and eastern canals and the entire water is to be discharged into the main Yamuna as two canals cannot withhold the high flow of water, Haryana government officials said. Between July 9 and 13, the amount of water released by the barrage varied between 9,300 and 359,000 cusecs.

Haryana media secretary, Praveen Attrey said that the Delhi government was running away from its responsibilities.

“Delhi Public Works Department minister is lying. All the stakeholders of Hathnikund barrage met before the monsoon on May 23 including representatives from Haryana, UP, Delhi and CWC. In this review, the management of barrage during monsoon and heavy water release was discussed,” said Attrey.

He added that during the May 23 meeting attended by Delhi officials it was decided that if the Yamuna gets more than 100,000 cusec water, the gates of Hathnikund barrage will be opened to release water via the Yamuna to the Bay of Bengal.

“Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system is running on barrage. When the 100,000 cusecs threshold was achieved, the gates were automatically opened. As per CWC study guidelines, if Yamuna has more than 100,000 cusecs of water, it cannot be released in the eastern and western Yamuna canal,” he said.

Attrey said that all this information and data about flows and release was being provided in a joint WhatsApp group of all stakeholders including Delhi representatives. “Despite knowing everything, they are making excuse to run away from their responsibilities. Waterlogging happened in Haryana also and our districts were also affected but our CM made all the necessary arrangements,” he added.

Khattar had, on Saturday, ordered the constitution of a two-member high-level fact-finding technical committee to check whether five gates of Delhi’s ITO barrage were jammed or not. The move comes in the backdrop of claims made by Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party government that five gates at the ITO barrage managed by the Haryana government were jammed and restricted the flow of water, thus causing flooding. The 32 gates at the ITO barrage are under the control of Haryana irrigation department.