Former Haryana minister Sampat Singh on Wednesday urged the standing committee on irrigation of Haryana assembly to conduct an immediate technical inspection of the state’s irrigation infrastructure.
Event Context
In a statement, the INLD leader said that years of neglect have put the vital Bhakra and Yamuna systems under severe stress. Singh said the critical infrastructure, such as the Narwana Branch–Karnal Link and the Sirsa Branch, designed to interconnect both systems, was failing to balance water distribution effectively.
The INLD leader alleged that the Haryana government has repeatedly failed to secure its rightful water share.
“Under the 1954 Yamuna Water Agreement, Haryana was entitled to two-thirds of the water, but a subsequent 1994 agreement signed under pressure reduced this share to just 47%. Furthermore, internal water diversions from the Bhakra system have led to persistent shortages in the tail-end areas of Nalwa and Adampur. The reduced availability of water has resulted in severely restricted supplies through the Bhakra canal system. Presently, 500 cusecs are being supplied to the Yamuna Command Area through Dhamtan distributary, Siwani feeder, Barsola distributary, Sinsar and Gurthali minors, Dharmgarh minor and Dharodhi distributary. The tail-end areas of the Bhakra canal system continue to suffer from chronic water shortages,” Singh said.
The former minister said the capacity of the Bhakra Main Barwala Link Channel has plummeted from 1,750 cusecs to 1,250 cusecs. He said that a 2015 project to raise the canal embankments from 18 feet to 19.4 feet remains stalled after objections from Rajasthan, despite Haryana paying ₹4.65 crore to Punjab for the work.
Following an inspection on July 15 with a retired irrigation engineer, the INLD leader said he found widespread structural damage. “We found numerous cracks near the Khanauri head and thick bushes clogging the canals. The blocked Dharodhi siphons at RD 9.73 have become a major obstruction where hundreds of dead animals and debris were found blocking the water flow. Similarly, Kalawan and Piplatha siphons were also obstructing the water flow,” he said.
