Ending a 32-year-old dispute, Haryana, Rajasthan seal Yamuna pact

Haryana and Rajasthan on Monday signed an agreement to operationalise the 1994 Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) pact and resolve a long-pending water dispute in the Yamuna basin. The agreement will allow Rajasthan to receive its allocated share of Yamuna water from the Hathini Kund barrage in Haryana during the monsoon months through an underground pipelines.
The pact was signed in the presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, and Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. 

Speaking after the signing of the accord, Shah said the agreement will provide 580 Million Cubic Meters (MCM) of water from Yamuna to Rajasthan through three underground pipelines between the monsoon months of July to October. He added that the agreement settles a water issue that has troubled Haryana and Rajasthan for almost thirty years.
The original UYRB agreement was signed on May 12, 1994, by Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, and Delhi. Uttarakhand joined the agreement after it became a separate State in 2000.

The 1994 pact set the rules for sharing the Yamuna River’s surface water among the basin States. But Rajasthan could not get its share because there was no way to move the water across the State border. The new agreement solves this problem by building an underground pipelines from the Hathini Kund barrage. The Hathini Kund barrage in Haryana’s Yamunanagar district controls the Yamuna’s flow before it reaches Delhi.

These pipelines, each over 3.6 meters wide, will supply drinking water to people in Sikar, Churu, and Jhunjhunu districts in Rajasthan, as well as to Bhiwani and Fatehabad in Haryana.
The home minister described the agreement as a good example of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea of Solution through Dialogue. He described the agreement as a “win-win situation” for both states. He added that the agreement clearly sets out financial responsibilities, cost-sharing, water allocation, release rules and maintenance plans.

The home minister said the agreement also covers how to operate and maintain the infrastructure, establish monitoring systems, ensure transparency and resolve disputes. He said the framework, created by Haryana, Rajasthan and the Central Water Commission (CWC), should remain free of disputes for many years, and that the resolution was achieved within a few days under the leadership of Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil.

Shah said that Haryana, Rajasthan, and the Ministry of Jal Shakti have put Prime Minister Modi’s vision of cooperative federalism into action. The project should help millions by providing safe drinking water and supporting economic growth in Rajasthan’s arid and semi-arid areas.