Chandigarh- The Punjab government has sent a bill of about Rs 113 crore to Haryana for the operation and maintenance of the Bhakra Canal. When the internal audit was conducted by the Water Resources Department of Punjab, surprising facts came to light. The audit report has revealed that the Haryana government has stopped giving money for the operation and maintenance of the Bhakra Canal to Punjab after the year 2015-16.
No government has even turned a blind eye to this. The Punjab Water Resources Department has now written a letter to the Additional Chief Secretary of the Irrigation Department of Haryana, asking him to pay the arrears of Rs 113.24 crore. In this, an amount of Rs 103.92 crore has been found to be outstanding for ‘Bhakhra Main Line Canal Division Patiala’, while an amount of Rs 9.32 crore is outstanding for ‘Mansa Canal Division Jawahar K’ towards Haryana. The Haryana government has never considered it necessary to reimburse this amount. However, regular dues are being transferred to Punjab by the Rajasthan government.
According to the details, there is an allocation of 12,455 cusecs of water for the Bhakra Canal, of which 7841 cusecs of water (63 percent) is the share of Haryana, while Punjab has a share of 3108 cusecs (25 percent). Similarly, Rajasthan has 7 percent, Delhi has four percent and Chandigarh has one percent share from the Bhakra Canal. The Bhakra Canal passes through Punjab, due to which the Punjab government bears the cost of operation and maintenance of this canal.
Since the operation and maintenance of the Bhakra Canal is done by the Punjab government, in return, the other states have to give money to Punjab in the due proportion. The expenses incurred on the repair of the Bhakra Canal, etc., are also borne by each state in accordance with its own proportion. Haryana has to pay a major share because 63 percent of the water goes to Haryana through the Bhakra Canal. The expenses of salaries of the employees and officers of the Punjab government are also borne by Haryana in proportion because these employees do the work of maintenance and upkeep of the Bhakra Canal. The Haryana government had stopped giving money to Punjab for salaries and office work from the year 2016-17, whereas before that regular Haryana used to give this amount. In the year 2023-24, the amount of salaries and office expenses to Haryana was Rs. 22.20 crore. From the year 1990 to the year 2023-24, the total amount of salary and office expenses owed to Haryana has been Rs 318.34 crore. After the year 2016-17, the total arrears owed to Haryana have been Rs 113.24 crore. Sources say that before the year 2016-17, the Punjab Water Resources Department used to keep a complete account of the operation and maintenance of the Bhakra Canal every year, but after that the Punjab government did not pay attention to this. Now when this matter came to the notice of the Principal Secretary of the Water Resources Department, Krishan Kumar, he issued orders for an internal audit. This major omission has come to light in this audit. The Punjab government is now on the path of recovery from Haryana.