With Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar asking his Punjab counterpart to join hands for checking the wasteful flow of Ravi waters to Pakistan in view of the water crisis in both the states, state CM Amarinder Singh on Monday urged the Centre to take the lead to restrict the flow of water from Punjab into neighbouring country.

The Punjab CM said the Centre should constitute a technical panel of experts to work out ways to restrict the flow of water from the state into Pakistan. Responding to media queries during a Press conference, Amarinder said he had not yet received the letter purported to have been written by his Haryana counterpart in the matter but his government would take every possible step secure more water for the state.

Pointing out that melting of ice leads to rise in the water levels in the three rivers of Ravi, Beas and Satluj, causing it to flow into Pakistan, Amarinder said he had written to Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari suggesting storage of the excess water in dams in Himachal Pradesh (HP) to check its flow into Pakistan.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, 1960, India has been allowed unrestricted usage of available water in Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Significant quantum of water of Ravi was flowing across the International Border through tributaries like Ujh, Jallialia, Tarna etc joining the Ravi downstream of the rim station at Madhopur.

The quantity of water of River Ravi flowing across the international border was assessed to be 0.58 Million Acre Feet (MAF). In 2015, the Punjab government has submitted a report giving two alternatives – firstly, Pump water from Makora Pattan to Upper Bari Doab Canal (UBDC) at 79,000 feet, involving lift of 85 feet over the distance of 30 kilometers (KM) and secondly, Pump water from Jainpur to UBDC at 79,000 feet, involving lift of 96 feet over the distance of 32 KM.

A team comprising officers of Central Water Commission and Union irrigation department had visited the site of proposed second Ravi Beas Link Project and submit a Feasibility Report. The team visited the site on December 5, 2017 and observed that harnessing the waters of Ravi was in national interest, and from among Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers, the greatest scope for utilisation of unharnessed waters was in Ravi and technical feasibility of transfer of water from Ravi to Beas needed to be ascertained.