M A I N   N E W S

Hansi-Butana canal breach
Punjab, Haryana draw daggers
Hooda govt accuses Punjab of sabotage; latter writes to Home Ministry
Jangveer Singh and Geetanjali Gayatri
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 10
Haryana today virtually accused Punjab of breaching the Hansi-Butana canal and called for joint patrolling of such “trouble spots” to avoid a recurrence even as Punjab rubbished the claim and appealed to the Home Ministry to dispatch a team to assess the situation at the ground level immediately.

After remaining busy in the field for the last three days dealing with flood waters which have devastated acres and acres of land and thrown normal life out of gear, officials from both Punjab and Haryana blamed each other for the present state of affairs.

Haryana hinted at sabotage from the Punjab side with RN Prashar, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, alleging that Haryana had found evidence of “man-made trouble” at the breach on the Hansi-Butana link at Keorak. He said it needed to be investigated whether it was a natural phenomenon or the handiwork of people living upstream. He said had it not been for the Kaithal drain, the entire city would have been under water.

However, Amarjit Singh Dullat, chief engineer (Punjab), dubbed Haryana’s claims as rubbish. “The canal is in their control and situated in their territory. How can we breach it?”, he asked. Breaches had occurred in the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and the Hansi Butana canal as they had been constructed against the natural contour, he added.

Dullat said while flooding was an annual feature after Haryana built the Hansi -Butana canal, this time, Punjab has photographic evidence to prove its case. Displaying some pictures, he said while a lake covering around 80,000 hectares had been formed in Punjab areas along the canal, there was no standing water on the Haryana side of the canal.

Haryana, on the other hand, said: “Every time farmers in Punjab suspect that the Ghaggar will overflow, they cause a breach to save themselves of the spillover at the cost of damage to Haryana.” “Punjab had done nothing to plug the breach till date. Efforts at our end is meaningless till Punjab cooperates because any release of unmeasured water will bring them to a naught,” he added.

Haryana also claimed that it was in no way responsible for flooding of Punjab areas. Prashar said the CWC had recently, in a report, suggested that the Hansi canal could not be responsible for flooding in Haryana.

Punjab, meanwhile, today wrote to the Home Ministry, asking for a CWC team to check the damage caused by the Hansi Butana canal.