The minister said the length of Yamuna in Haryana was 328 km whereas it was running for only 38 km in Delhi. Thus starting from Tajewala Headworks, Yamuna had a length of 260 km upto the border of Sonepat (Haryana) from where it was running for 38 km in Delhi before re-entering Haryana for another 68 km from Delhi-Haryana border near Faridabad to state's border with Uttar Pradesh, he added.

Kumar said the guidelines of the Central Water Commission, based on the model studies, prescribe that water must not be diverted into the canals when the water flow in Yamuna exceeds 70,000 cusecs as there would be a possibility of damage caused to canals by heavy boulders flowing in the river. Consequently, in case of excessive flow in Yamuna, the state authorities had no alternative but to let the excessive water flow downstream uninterrupted, he added.

However, in case of excessive discharge at Tajewala, the state irrigation authorities always inform their counterpart down stream in Delhi about the quantum of discharge in the river, the minister said. A sub divisional officer along with 30 staff members had been functioning at Tajewala round-the-clock, 365 days in a year, he pointed out.

World Bank aid for power sector: Haryana will receive second instalment of Rs 1,100 crore from World Bank for the ambitious power sector reforms project by June next year. The instalment is a part of the Rs 2,400 crore loan sanctioned by World Bank.

The schedule for release of second instalment was revealed by Djamal Mostefai, senior energy specialist of World Bank, who called on Haryana Minister of State for Power Attar Singh Saini here today. Mostefai was accompanied by Harvey Salgo, technical consultant and Peter Meier, economic consultant of the bank. They are on a visit to the state as members of the World Bank mission to discuss preparations for adaptable programme loan two (APL-2).

Mostefai expressed satisfaction over steps being taken to reform the power sector and hoped that the reform measures would considerably improve availability and quality of power, besides enhancing efficiency of the staff, according to an official spokesman. Meier evinced keen interest in Haryana's programmes for promotion of non-conventional sources of energy.

The minister informed the World Bank team that a separate office for the generation corporation was being set up. A vigorous campaign would be launched to apprise the people about the reform measures being followed to improve the power sector, he said.

Mostefai informed the state government that the Sri Lanka government had also evinced keen interest in the power reform sector and a Sri Lanka team would visit Haryana soon to study its power reform project. Several other countries were evincing keen interest in Haryana's initiatives, he said.

Power secretary S Y Quraishi, Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam chairman Ranjit Issar were also present at the meeting.