33 years on, committee yet to come up with strategy to tame Ghaggar

33 years on, committee yet to come up with strategy to tame Ghaggar
Chandigarh: Established on February 26, 1990, the Ghaggar Standing Committee has failed to come up with a workable plan to deal with floods in the 320-km seasonal river. Headed by a member of the river management wing in the Central Water Commission (CWC), the committee members include the Commissioner (Indus) of the Ministry of Water Resources, Director (Basin Planning & Management Organisation of the CWC), Chief Engineer,Bridge Northern Railway, the Chief Engineers (Drainage) from Punjab and Haryana and the Chief Engineer (Irrigation) from Rajasthan.

Official sources said following a decision of the Supreme Court on November 15, 2022, the Punjab Government submitted a detailed project report, envisaging Rs 1,104.11 crore expenditure to tame the Ghaggar, to the CWC. However, the project did not get clearance from the Haryana and Rajasthan governments. The Punjab Government also outlined a Rs 259.03-crore plan separately for channelisation and widening of the Ghaggar from Makror Sahib to Karail. This project was not cleared by the Haryana Government on the ground that “channelisation and widening of the Ghaggar may result in excess discharge reaching Haryana areas downstream”.

No meeting of the Ghaggar Standing Committee has been held since November 2021, official sources said. A senior official said Punjab also wrote to the committee on March 10 this year, asking for a session before the monsoon season.

In absence of any coordinated plan, the Punjab Government is carrying out repairs in patches. This year, the government has spent Rs 1.67 crore out of the state funds and another Rs 1 crore from MGNREGA funds for cleaning the Ghaggar.