Punjab, Haryana trade charges over flooding

CHANDIGARH - Even before the water level in flood-affected areas of Haryana and Punjab has receded, both states Wednesday blamed each other for the flooding that has left scores of villages and towns inundated and destroyed crops in thousands of hectares of land.

A spokesman of Haryana’s irrigation department said Wednesday that “uncontrolled water to the extent of about 6,000 to 7,000 cusecs, which entered from Punjab into SYL (Sutlej Yamuna Link) canal, caused a breach” in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district Tuesday.

He added that the army had been deployed and the breach was being plugged by them.

He said: “Due to heavy rains in the catchment areas July 5 and 6, the river Ghaggar, Tangri and Markanda overflowed. As a result, a lot of water from river Ghaggar and Tangri, which came from Punjab side, entered into Ambala city and Ambala Cantt areas.”

Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who visited the flood-affected areas and even did an aerial survey of the worst-affected areas, told reporters in Ambala, 45 km from here, that the water flowing from Punjab had caused a breach in the canal in Haryana, leading to flooding in both districts.

The flooding in vast areas of Haryana’s Ambala and Kurukshetra districts led to normal life being completely paralyzed Tuesday, including railway and road traffic on the Chandiharh-Ambala-New Delhi section.

While the traffic on the busy National Highway (NH) No. 1 and NH-22 had been restored completely Wednesday morning, trains in this section were still running late and some were cancelled.

With not much rainfall Wednesday in the flood-affected areas, the flood water had started receding, irrigation department officials said.

In neighbouring Punjab, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that 108 villages of Patiala district had been marooned due to the breach in the SYL canal. The state government has requisitioned the national calamity force to help people in the affected areas.

Taking a pot-shot at Haryana, Badal said that “the situation in Patiala district had worsened with the breach in the SYL canal in Haryana. The water overflowed into Ghaggar and Narwana branch, flooding the whole region”.

Badal added that the closure of gates by Haryana at Hansi Butana made the situation pitiable. He suggested that both, Punjab and Haryana, work together to provide relief to affected people in these states.

Badal added that Punjab, on the request from Haryana, had decreased the water level in the Narwana canal in view of the flooding in Kurukshetra and Ambala districts.