Damages to be claimed from India for blocking Chenab water: National Assembly informed

The construction of Baghlihar Dam on the River Chenab has led to a loss of 0.2 million-acre-feet (MAF) of water at Head Marala, and the Water Commissioners of both Pakistan and India have discussed the issue at length in a series of meetings to ensure the minimum discharge as agreed in the Indus Water Treaty.
This was stated in National Assembly on Wednesday by Minister for Water and Power Pervaiz Ashraf, in response to a call-attention notice. "We have taken up the issue at all levels with India and are monitoring the water discharge at Marala to ensure 55,000 cusecs on daily basis. We intend to claim damages from India for lower water discharge levels", he added.
The call-attention notice was moved by Muhammad Asad Khan, Muhammad Safdar Khan and Nighat Parveen regarding 'lower water discharge from India in Chenab, causing grave concern to the public'.
In reply to another attention notice about 'non-installation of water filtration plants in every union council, as announced by the then government in 2005, State Minister for Industries Aayatullah Durrani said that most of these plants had been installed in Balochistan as the provincial government had taken responsibility for maintenance of these plants. This was a project funded by Unicef, and there is a problem of bearing maintenance cost of these plants for other provinces, he added.
He said that out of 124 plants, 99 have been installed in Sindh, while the others will be installed in due course of time in consultation with provincial authorities. Durrani said that the government was trying to develop a similar mechanism in Punjab and NWFP.
Azra Fazal Puchoo urged the government to change the filters of the plants at an appropriate time to provide safe drinking water to the masses. Yasmin Rehman said that the entire project was ill-planned, as provinces were not taking the responsibility of maintaining them. The minister replied that the government was co-ordinating with provincial governments to make union councils responsible for maintenance of the plants.
Leader of the House in Senate, Raza Rabbani, commenting on Industrial Relations Ordinance, said that it was promulgated by President Pervez Musharraf, and it usurped the rights of the workers.
The Industrial Relations Bill, 2008 was passed by the Senate unanimously and now it is laid before the National Assembly. "I am trying to create a consensus in the Lower House for its unanimous passage" he added. Ahsan Iqbal of PML (N) was of the view that tripartite consensus among workers, industrialists and government must be ensured to remove workers' grievances amicably. The 2008 bill envisaged government representatives heading the labour courts; Iqbal suggested that this should be reviewed by a relevant committee.