CISF deployment row: Punjab to take legal opinion on BBMB paying Rs 8 crore to Centre
'We will take a legal opinion on what the government can do next after the BBMB pays Rs 8.58 crore to the Centre for deployment. It is, however, clear that the dams will be manned by the Punjab Police only. We will tell you about the next steps we are taking on the issue in the coming days,' Finance Minister Harpal Cheema told the media after the Cabinet meeting led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
In May, the Centre had sanctioned a contingent of 296 armed CISF personnel to provide a counter-terrorist security cover to the Nangal dam in Punjab amid the standoff between Punjab and Haryana over the sharing of water from the dam. However, the Punjab Government withdrew the consent for deploying Central forces at the dams on July 7 and later passed a resolution in the Assembly in this regard.
The Cabinet on Wednesday reiterated that the Punjab Police were capable of protecting all the dams under BBMB — Pong, Bhakra, and Nanagal — and hence it would not bear any expenses incurred on the deployment of CISF.
This amount is to be paid for the deployment of 296 security personnel for the security of the dam.
'We have already made it clear that our police is capable of handling the dams. We will not allow the central forces to be deployed. The 3 crore people of the state, through the Vidhan Sabha, have already passed a resolution and sent it to the Centre rejecting the deployment of CISF,' said Cheema.
However, even after the resolution, BBMB has paid an amount of Rs 8.58 crore to the Centre.
The Centre had announced to deploy CISF after BBMB Chairman Manoj Tripathi was held captive at the Bhakra dam two months ago, when the Punjab government had refused to release extra water to Haryana. At that time, the residents of the area, Minister Harjot Bains, locked up Tripathi in the rest house of BBMB.
The Cabinet mentioned that a bill of Rs 113 crore has been sent to Haryana for the expenses related to the Bhakra Main Line (BML), which was due by that state for the past eight years.
Cheema said that the previous governments in Punjab ignored the fact that Haryana was not paying the cost of the line in Bhakra, although 63 per cent of the water from BML was utilised by the state, while Punjab was spending on it from its Exchequer.
In another Cabinet decision, the state government has reorganised many blocks of Punjab. Cheema said that many blocks were in some other district while their sub-division was elsewhere. 'For instance, several villages in my constituency, Dirba, were near Dirba, but their headquarters were in Sunam. This was creating administrative problems,' he explained. He said that no new block has been added in the reorganisation of blocks, and the number of blocks will remain the same at 154.
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