Jaipur, June 29 (IANS). After agreeing on Yamuna water-sharing between Rajasthan and Haryana, both the states will sign the agreement in Delhi on Monday. This agreement will be signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. During this, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil will also be present.
This agreement is expected to end the three-decade long standoff between the two states. According to official sources, the outline was finalized by officials of both the states in a long meeting held on Sunday. Now Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini will formalize the agreement.
CMO officials confirmed on Monday that Bhajanlal Sharma left for Delhi from Jaipur at 8.30 am. The signing ceremony of the MoU for the construction and implementation of Yamuna Water Project will be held at Dutva Bhawan-3, New Delhi.
Yamuna Water Project will provide irrigation and drinking water to three districts of Sikar, Churu and Jhunjhunu in the Shekhawati region of Rajasthan. “The signing of the agreement will take place in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil, Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, Haryana Chief Minister Naib Singh Saini, Union Home Secretary and senior officials of the Central government as well as Rajasthan and Haryana governments,” officials said.
This consensus was reached between the officials of both the states after a two-hour meeting held at Bikaner House in Delhi yesterday. Rajasthan was represented by Chief Secretary V. Srinivas, Additional Chief Secretary Abhay Kumar and Chief Engineer, Water Resources Department, Bhuvan Bhaskar. Haryana was represented by Additional Chief Secretary Anurag Agarwal and Chief Engineer Virendra Singh, while Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi joined through video conferencing.
As per the agreement, Haryana will take water from several designated places. In this, 10 cusecs of water will be taken from Danoda Kalan, 80 cusecs from Sarsaud distributary near Nayagaon, 70 cusecs from Hindwan on Chaudhary Minor, 20 cusecs from Pattan on Sarsana Minor, 2 cusecs from Sega Narar, 43 cusecs from Pyoda near Kaithal and 41.83 cusecs from Chandana-Manas Road near Kaithal. Additionally, Haryana will have the facility to use one more fixed intake point and will be allowed to draw water from any of the three other reservoirs of Hasiyawas, if required.
The Rajasthan government will bear the financial burden of this project, and efforts will also be made to get financial help from the central government. Officials said that the same pipeline network will also help in delivering water to Rajasthan’s share from the future Kishau, Lakhwar and Renukaji projects.
Although Haryana had proposed to revisit the water sharing in view of changing needs after the 1994 agreement, both the states have agreed to implement the original agreement for now. Under the agreement, Rajasthan will get 1,917 cusecs of Yamuna water.
To ease the supply of water, three pipelines will be laid from Hathnikund to Hasiyawas, each of which will have a diameter of 3.6 meters. The proposed pipeline will pass through five districts of Haryana: Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind and Hisar.
Officials said that once the agreement gets formal approval, land acquisition work along the pipeline corridor will begin. Construction work will start after the tender is issued.
–IANS
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