11-member Committee to go into Yamuna Water Accord

Chandigarh, Sep 19: Haryana Speaker Raghbir Singh Kadian today announced the formation of a 11-member committee to analyse the circumstances which led to the signing of the 1994 Yamuna Water Accord.

The Committee to be headed by the Speaker would go into the 'discrepancies between the Cabinet decisions taken then and the signed document or accord'.

The Committee will review the document signed by the then Chief Minister Bhajan Lal in 1994 for the Renuka and Kishau dams. It will suggest terms for the Lakhwar Vyas dam.

The Committee will also suggest terms for construction and maintainence of the three dams by a central agency on the pattern of Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to avoind inter-state disputes.

It may be recalled that in the 1994 agreement, signed between Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, Haryana's share was reduced from 66.66 to 47.8 per cent while UP's share was slightly increased.

Besides the Speaker, the other members of the Committee include Mr Bhajan Lal, Irrigation Minister Capt Ajay singh Yadav, Shamsher Singh Surjewala, Finance Minister Birender Singh and Haryana Pradesh Congress chief Phool Chand Mullana, all of the Congress. The other members are Mrs Rekha Rana (INLD), Ram Kumar Gautam (BJP), Sukhbir Singh (NCP), Arjun Singh (BSP) and Radhe Shyam Sharma (Ind).

The decision to form the Committee was taken on the suggestion of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala who during zero hour in the assembly today expressed concern of the members of the House on this Accord as it did not benefit the state of Haryana.

Talking to reporters, Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the House committee would function like a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). Mr Hooda had yesterday assured the state assembly that his government would make all possible efforts to get rectified the 1994 Yamuna water accord which had ''dealt a blow to the interests of the state.'' The issue had cropped up in the assembly yesterday during a calling attention motion on the acute shortage of irrigation water in the Yamuna command area.

Irrigation Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav had yesterday told the House that under the earlier Yamuna water agreement of 1954, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh were getting Yamuna waters in the ratio of two-thirds and one-third respectively.

Though the agreement was signed between the then state of undivided Punjab and Uttar Pradesh in 1954, after the formation of Haryana it became applicable to Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, he added.

However, in the 1994 agreement, signed between Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi, Haryana's share was reduced from 66.66 to 47.8 per cent while UP's share was slightly increased.

''Whatever was given to Himachal Pradesh, Rajashan and Delhi went out of the share of Haryana,'' Capt yadav had said.

UNI