NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana said he would dis continue water supply to VVIP zones and other posh localities in the Capital if Haryana did not release additional Yamuna water that is due to Delhi.

Khurana said this would bring the VVIP areas on par with the lesser privileged in the city He also said he would do so even if Haryana reduced the current raw water supply.

He quoted figures saying New Delhi areas got 70 gallons per person every day while other urban parts get 50 gallons and rural areas get only 20 gallons.

 This will not do If Bhajan Lal Hicks to his stand i will see that every citizen in Delhi gets the same amount of water whoever he or she is Let everybody realize that Haryana is  guilty and that there is paucity of water in Delhi Khurana explained. He however exempted Rashtrapati Bhavan. Parliament House and the Prime Minister’s residence saying their needs would be taken care of.

Khurana said the Congress-ruled Haryana Government was blackmailing Delhi on the issue of raw Water supply and demanded an interim agreement for distribution of water among the five seats according to proposed proportions in the Yamuna River.

Talking to reporters here recently he said Union Ministers for Water Resources Vidya Charan Shukla had invited the five states to meet in the first week of January and discuss the issue.

IF no concrete result comes out i will approach Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao for his immediate intervention he said.

According to a decision taken early this year the five states had agreed that if 11.983 billion cubic meters of water was available in Upper Yamuna Haryana would get 5.730 billion cubic meters Uttar Pradesh 4032 cubic meters Rajasthan 1.119 cubic meters Delhi 0724 cubic meters and Himachal Pradesh 0.378 billion cubic meters

Since the distribution is possible only after Construction of dams on Upper Yamuna it was suggested that available water should be distributed among the states according to proposed proportion.

Khurana said all the state governments had agreed except Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. He had argued that the Yamuna waters have considerably received in the past.

Thus Khurana said Bhajan Lal agreed to sign the agreement but wanted it to be implemented 10 years later

Khurana said: This is ridiculous to Say that you sign the agreement today but implement it after 10 years

He emphasized if Delhi gets its due share of 0.724 cubic meter of water (it comes to 972.5 million gallon daily) the water problem in Delhi would be over once for all. The existing water demand in Delhi is 700 MGD.

He also demanded that Haryana should maintain the status quo which existed before the Delhi Assembly elections. Haryana was supplying 50 MGD to the Haider pur water treatment plant before the election and now has reduced the supply by 25 MGD. Also Haryana has agreed to supply 25 MGD only till January 17 he said.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 7, 1994