“Finger-pointing is neither in interest of humanity, state or country”: Haryana CM

Chandigarh (Haryana) [India], July 16 (ANI): Hitting out at the Aam Aadami Party (AAP) government for blaming Haryana over floods in parts of Delhi, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday said that the finger-pointing is neither in the interest of humanity, state or the country.

“This blame game or finger-pointing is not good and is neither in the interest of humanity, nor state or the country,” Khattar said while addressing a press conference here.
He further said that the Haryana Government can never cause harm to anyone to protect itself.

“Only a narrow-minded person can do this,” Khattar said.

As the blame game between Delhi and Haryana governments continued over the floods in Delhi, CM Khattar further alleged that Delhi does not pay for the water it takes from Haryana even after the Supreme Court’s order.

“Only Haryana fulfills the water requirement of Delhi. Delhi’s share is 750 cusecs and even today, Haryana gives 1070 cusecs of water to Delhi. 320 cusecs of water are being more than its share. The Supreme Court had said that the Delhi government would pay for the extra water given by Haryana while the Delhi government does not pay for that 320 cusecs of extra water. If something is being given with money, then its money must be returned,” he added.

Haryana CM further said that the state government never spends money on the maintenance of ITO Barrage.

“That money was given by Indraprastha Power Plant till 2018. With the closure of the plant, the money was also stopped. The Delhi government never flagged any issue regarding it,” he said.

Khattar said many districts of Haryana are also adversely affected by the water.

“It is like hum to dubenge sanam, tumko bhi le dubenge (we will drown, and will take you along),” he said.

Khattar said that people in Haryana  are not narrow-minded  that they can think of submerging Delhi to save themselves, adding that the people of his state are compassionate enough even willing to sacrifice their own lives to save others.

Earlier, Khattar took to Twitter and said, “To solve the drinking water problem of Delhi in summers, we had given our share of water to them as well and today when disaster has struck, they are indulging in politics. I do not engage in such cheap politics and no one from Haryana is so narrow-minded they can think of submerging Delhi to save themselves. The people of his state are compassionate enough even willing to sacrifice their own lives to save others.”

As some parts of Delhi still continued to be immersed in flood water causing waterlogging and traffic snarls, the Aam Adami Party (AAP) had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central Government of orchestrating a conspiracy to flood the city with the water of Haryana’s Hathnikund Barrage.

Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Saturday questioned the haryana government over the water not being released to the other states especially the eastern canal which goes to UP.

“Hathni Kund barrage diverts water to three different canals- eastern canal, western canal and to Yamuna. The water of the western canal comes to Delhi so they keep releasing water into it and the same with Yamuna. But they are not releasing water into the eastern canal which goes to UP. What is the reason for this? This is a conspiracy against Delhi. The BJP-led central government is conspiring to flood Delhi,” he said while speaking to ANI.

“It hasn’t rained in Delhi since July 10, but Delhi is still flooded. Water is forcefully being diverted into Delhi,” Saurabh Bharadwaj added.