The inter-state water conflicts dominated the northern zonal council meeting held under Union Home Minister Amit Shah here on Friday.

All the four participating states raised the issues related inter-state water disputes, following which a decision was taken to hold a separate meeting of all concerned Chief Ministers in Delhi to resolve the inter-state conflict in a time bound manner.

Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik, Punjab Governor and UT Administrator VP Singh Badnore, Lt. Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal, his Punjab counterpart Capt. Amarinder Singh, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, Himachal CM Jai Ram Thakur, Cabinet Ministers from Haryana and senior bureaucrats from states and Central Government attended the meeting.

Sources said that the Chief Ministers of four states engaged in a blame over their long-pending inter-state water disputes and the issue dominated the NZC meeting for more than an hour.

The meeting under Amit Shah, which lasted for about four hours, saw detailed discussion on the issues of supply from Yamuna water, construction of Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, construction of Renuka dam, Lakhwar-Vyasi dam and Kishau dam.

The contentious issue of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal between Punjab and Haryana was raised by Manohar Lal, who said that SYL is the lifeline of Haryana and Punjab is not delivering Haryana's full share of the Ravi-Beas water.

The supplies of water from river Yamuna have been dwindling over the recent years and it is most unfortunate that more than a thousand villages in Haryana and millions of hectares of land are still bereft of water, he said.

Punjab CM, however, maintained that the state has no surplus water to share with them.

Commenting on the long standing water-sharing dispute between Punjab and Haryana, Union Minister Amit Shah said, “Being an elder brother, Punjab should adopt a positive approach for resolving the pending water disputes with Haryana.”

Notably, the Supreme Court had on September 3 gave four more months to Punjab, Haryana, and the Centre to find an amicable solution to break the deadlock between the two states over the SYL canal.

On the other hand, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot blamed Haryana for not releasing allocated share of Yamuna water to Jhunjhunu and Bharatpur districts.

The Chief Ministers of Himachal and Rajasthan also urged the Union Home Minister to include the two states as full-fledged member in Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB). Following this, the Union Home Minister assured them to look into the matter.

When the blame game over inter-state water disputes continued at the meeting, it was decided that all Chief

Ministers concerned need to sit once again together at the Central level along with organizations concerned to resolve the same in a time-bound manner. A meeting of all four CMs will now be held in

New Delhi.

Confirming the same, Ashok Gehlot, Rajasthan Chief Minister while talking to the mediapersons said that detail talks were held about water-sharing disputes at the meeting and Home Minister has assured us to hold a separate meeting in New Delhi of concerned CMs to resolve inter-state water disputes.

OP Dhankar, Haryana Agriculture and Irrigation Minister said that discussion on inter-state issues including water, electricity, road infrastructure, connectivity to Chandigarh International Airport was held.

At the meeting, Haryana Government offered to revive its stake in the Panjab University but the offer was rejected by the Punjab Government.

Haryana CM offered that some of its colleges be affiliated to the Chandigarh-based PU, and in return, the government would offer a grant to the cash-strapped university. But the Punjab CM emphasised that the current status of PU should be continued.

The issue of over-burden on Chandigarh’s tertiary healthcare –Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research was also raised, with the Chandigarh Administrator emphasising on the need of creating adequate healthcare infrastructure in neighbouring states.

During the meeting, the council reviewed the progress of implementation of the recommendations made at the last meeting held in 2017 in the city.

On the issue of speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence/rape against women and children, it was decided that no stone should be left unturned to adhere to the time limits of 2 months for investigation and enquiry or trial in keeping with Criminal Law Amendment Act, 2018.

It was agreed upon that coverage of all villages in the concerned participating states and union territories which have hitherto remained without any banking facilities within 5 km radial distance by a Bank or India Post Payments Service must be ensured within three months.

The Chief Secretaries were directed to personally monitor the progress of coverage of villages by bank branches and IPPB.

It was also decided that the next meeting of the northern zonal council would be held in Jaipur.

Earlier in the meeting, the Council expressed satisfaction over release of Rs 47436 crore plus Payment of Compensatory Afforestation (CA) and Net Present Value (NPV).

Report of Survey of India relating to boundary disputes between Haryana and Himachal Pradesh was also presented to which there was broad consensus on methodology.

At the meeting, Punjab Government agreed to release dues amounting to Rs. 73 crore in 3 monthly instalments of Employees Trusts of erstwhile RSEB from Punjab Financial Corporation and Punjab State Industrial Development Corporation.