Bhakra Beas Management Board chief ‘locked up’ inside resthouse, stopped from releasing water to Haryana

High drama unfolded at the Nangal Dam in Punjab on Thursday with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers led by Cabinet minister Harjot Bains staging a dharna at the approach road to the dam, stopping Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) chairperson Manoj Tripathi from releasing water to Haryana, and later locking him up at the board's resthouse.

- GNS News Agency

Tripathi was later ‘rescued’ in a police vehicle and moved out. The development came a day after the Punjab and Haryana High Court restrained the state of Punjab and its functionaries, including police personnel, from interfering in the day-to-day functioning, operation, and regulation of the Bhakra Nangal Dam.

Tripathi had reached the regulatory end of the dam on Thursday morning. However, AAP workers gathered at the spot did not allow him to release water. Later, he left for Sutlej Sadan, the BBMB's rest house in Nangal. After Bains reached the spot, the main gate of the rest house was locked, with Tripathi inside. Talking to The Indian Express, Bains said that Tripathi reached the dam in the morning and tried to release the water to Haryana. “We did not allow it. We are sitting on a dharna outside,” Bains said.

Amid the tension at the border after India launched Operation Sindoor against Pakistan, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also arrived at Nangal from Chandigarh. Sources said he was accompanied by Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi. “Taking immediate and firm action at Nangal Dam — we have successfully stopped BBMB’s illegal attempt to release Punjab’s water without state consent. Until Hon'ble CM @BhagwantMann ji arrives at Nangal, no further movement will be allowed. Punjab’s water is not negotiable,” Bains wrote in a post on X.