By IANS,
Chandigarh : Former Punjab chief minister and state Congress president Amarinder Singh Monday rejected the Central Water Commission’s (CWC) preliminary report to the Supreme Court that the controversial Hansi-Butana canal and toe-wall of Haryana pose no flood threat to Punjab.
The canal and its toe-wall have become a major source of confrontation between Haryana and the neighbouring Punjab. The Punjab government and leaders in the state insist that these will, in fact, lead to flooding in the Patiala district of Punjab.
In an earlier statement here, Amarinder said that the report seemed to have been prepared without any ground-level assessment of the situation. He asked the commission to depute a high-powered team of experts for an on-the-spot assessment.
“It does not require any engineering expertise but simple common sense to find out how much danger is posed by the toe-wall along with the canal,” Amarinder said in a letter to the CWC chairman. “This could lead to disaster and devastation in hundreds of Punjab villages.”
Amarinder said the toe wall had added to the danger of floods since it will block all the extra water from taking its natural course and push it back towards Punjab. He added that even the construction of the canal would block the natural flow of the Ghaggar and Tangri rivers.
Rejecting the CWC report, Amarinder said: “This is quite ridiculous and unacceptable as the CWC seems to have either no idea of the ground reality or has deliberately overlooked the ground situation.”
Expressing doubts about the veracity of the report, he said: “I doubt whether any of the CWC members or experts visited the actual site before preparing the preliminary report that you submitted before the honourable Supreme Court of India.”