Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is expected to meet his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday to discuss the issue of Munak Canal and increasing pollution levels in the Yamuna with ammonia levels rising to 1.2 ppm (parts per million) against the permissible limit of 0.2 ppm.
It may be recalled that Haryana is also unwilling to release the additional 80 MGD of water, claiming that it is being forced to give up its own share of water for Delhi. With no end in sight to the squabbling, the matter has been referred to a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and there have been a series of meetings with officials from the States to work out a solution in the past few years.
After the MoU was signed in 1993, the project was started in 2003; it was expected to be complete by 2006. In 2009, the Delhi Government pushed for early completion of the canal, citing the Commonwealth Games as a reason.
The project was initially expected to incur a cost of Rs380 crore. However, owing to delays and overruns, Delhi has already spent Rs414 crore and is ready to shell out Rs106 crore for its completion. This time it has issued a caveat that Haryana gives an assurance that the full quantum of water is released and the conditions of the MoU are met.
The 102 km canal was made to stop the loss of water through leakages in the existing canal and it was decided that Delhi will get the share of water that will be saved after the Munak gets operational.