Capt rejects Khaira’s claim on water release
Friday, 14/06/2019
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CHANDIGARH: Rejecting Punjab Ekta Party chief Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s allegation of state’s canals going dry while the government was releasing water to Pakistan, chief minister Amarinder Singh said surplus water was being discharged as a precautionary measure to prevent flooding in the areas along Sutlej and Beas rivers.
The CM accused the former leader of opposition of making baseless and politically motivated charges to spread disinformation. “Khaira is a chronic attention-seeker with no credibility and no respect for truth,” he said in a statement, terming as ludicrous the “outrageous remarks” that questioned his ‘motives’.
Khaira had on Wednesday said that 15,000-20,000 cusecs of river water were being diverted to Pakistan daily while the state’s canals were running dry. He asked the CM to immediately stop the flow of excess water and use the same for irrigation.
Responding to the statement, Amarinder said the decision to release excess water, in a regulated manner, was a precautionary measure taken by a technical committee meeting held on May 28, 2019, wherein all partner states were represented. He said a unanimous view emerged at the meeting that there was surplus water and it would be appropriate to use it gainfully by releasing excess supplies and get the benefit of power generation too.
The CM also ridiculed Khaira for reading a hidden agenda and motive in a decision taken on technical grounds by all the partner states. “Not only was the release of excess water necessary to prevent flooding later, it was actually beneficial for the state,” he said, adding, “There is no shortage of water as a result of this discharge”.
He said that contrary to Khaira’s unfounded claims of 15,000 to 20,000 cusecs of water being released, on an average, 8700 cusecs of water on daily basis had been released downstream of Ferozepur headwork’s to Pakistan for the past 24 days, with regular monitoring of the situation.