Haryana Government has urged the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) to ensure release of the legitimate share of the state in Yamuna water at Okhla and direct Delhi Government to pay Rs150 crore on account of the extra raw water supplied.
The Chief Minister Manohar lal on Wednesday also urged the NCRPB to take up with the Central Government the issue of early execution of Renuka, Kishau and lakhwar dam projects to overcome water shortage in the state.
Speaking at the meeting of NCRPB in New Delhi, the Chief Minister said that Delhi’s drawl of water from Haryana resulted in reduction of the state’s legitimate water share from Yamuna and caused extreme hardship to the people of the State.
large dry and arid areas of Faridabad, Palwal and Mewat districts of Haryana falling in the NCR are being deprived of their legitimate share in Yamuna water due to non-release of due share of Haryana in Yamuna waters at Okhla, said he.
Haryana is a water deficit state with respect to both surface and ground water resources. Despite depleting inflows in Yamuna, Haryana has been meeting the drinking water needs of Delhi from its own share. Haryana also carries water share of Delhi from Ravi Beas and Yamuna waters through Canal network whose operation and maintenance costs are huge, said the Chief Minister.
Manohar lal said, “Delhi is neither paying charges for extra raw water nor for O&M. At present, Rs94 crore is due from Delhi, on account of supplying extra raw water and Rs56.57 crore for Operations and Maintenance (O and M) charges.”
He also said that drinking water to Delhi cannot be the responsibility of Haryana alone and Haryana would request other states of Northern India, including Punjab, to come forward and contribute their share to fulfilling the drinking water requirement of the national capital.
The problem of acute shortage of water can be addressed to some extent on completion of the proposed three dams at Renuka, Kishau and lakhwar on Yamuna and its tributaries, the Chief Minister added.
He also urged the NCRPB to part-finance the Rs3,000 crore investment Haryana plans to make in the power sector in the NCR and ensure that power projects are approved within two to three months of submission of the Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) so that the benefit of low-cost funding has maximum impact.
Haryana Government also demanded liberal financial assistance for developing Karnal and Jind, the new entrants in the NCR, along with Mahendragarh and Bhiwani districts, and sought flexibility in fixing the eligibility conditions for the bidders in projects approved by NCRPB.The State Government has also demanded fast-tracking of the projects conceived to improve connectivity between Delhi and NCR towns of the state and sought soft loan from NCRPB for completion of the Rs44,000-crore Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) from Gurgaon to Bawal.
The Chief Minister said the total cost for the project is expected to be about Rs44,000 crore, including land acquisition cost of about Rs2000 crore and requested the Board to grant soft loan for early implementation of the project.
“At present, there is no proposal to link KMP with Indira Gandhi International Airport. Since a large part of the traffic on the KMP would be heading for the International Airport, there is an urgent need to explore the possibility of connecting KMP to the Delhi Airport through the AIIMS-II/Cancer Hospital at Badsa”, he suggested.
The Chief Minister also asked NCRPB to give an assistance of Rs 60 crore as grant to establish three more fully automated inspection and testing centre at Gurgaon, Faridabad and Karnal to reduce pollution in the NCR and ensure safety of the road users.
The state already has fully automated inspection and testing centre at Rohtak for checking the road worthiness of transport vehicles. Out of 6.3 lakh transport vehicles in Haryana, about five lakh are registered within the towns of Haryana sub-region of NCR, he informed.
The Chief Minister also suggested that CNG rates in the NCR area should be uniform and uniform rates of VAT may be charged in the NCR area on fuel and other elements of the taxi scheme, wherever applicable. Uniform rates or fare should be charged by these taxis, he added.