U.P. urged to restore Haryana's share in Yamuna water (The Hindu 14 April 2011)

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana Government has asked Uttar Pradesh to immediately restore its legitimate share in the Yamuna water upstream of Okhla Barrage, Haryana Irrigation and Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav said here on Wednesday.

He said he had written to his U.P. counterpart, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, and apprised him that “denial of the rightful share has made the districts of Faridabad, Palwal, Mewat and parts of Gurgaon starve and suffer badly”. The area under irrigation in these districts stood depleted and the agricultural produce had been affected.

“The brewing resentment among the farmers of these districts had found a resounding echo on the floor of the Haryana Assembly during the last session with a large number of legislators venting their ire on the issue,'' he added.

Capt. Yadav pointed out that the off-takes of Agra Canal in Haryana territory channels got significantly less discharge, ranging from 31 per cent to 70 per cent than the discharge shown in their water accounts.

‘Not regular'

“Worse still, the discharge released into the channels is not on a regular basis for a pre-determined period/rotational programme but is highly erratic. Resultantly, the water fails to reach the middle and tail reaches of the channels. For instance, canal supplies in Modal and Hassanpur distributory reached up to the tail-end for only 22 days and 17 days, respectively during the last 15 years,'' he claimed.

He said that on the basis of the notional inflows at the Okhla Barrage, four-monthly (seasonal) distribution of available shareable water had been made to control day-to-day distribution of the Yamuna water at Okhla for Haryana, Rajasthan and U.P.

The discharges into the Gurgaon Canal Feeder and channels taking off from Agra Canal and serving Haryana for the last five years revealed that there was a “grave discrepancy in the actual discharges shown in the U.P. channels serving Palwal district, and the actual discharges received in these channels”.

“The methodology used for computation of shareable water at Okhla by the U.P. irrigation authorities is based on discharges in Agra Canal at Mile 11. The quantum of water through Hindon cut canal, on which Haryana irrigation has no control, is subtracted to calculate the discharge in the river upstream of Okhla Barrage. The formula used results in negative discharges sometimes, which is beyond logic,'' he stated.

Capt. Yadav asked how the share of Haryana could be negative when there was sufficient inflow into the Yamuna in Delhi territory reaching the Okhla Barrage.