The long-running water cess controversy may snowball into a major conflagration with the Central Government on the one side and the Himachal, Punjab and Haryana regimes on the other. The latest move on the part of the Punjab and Haryana Governments, where the BJP is a coalition partner, to pressurise the Vajpayee Government to exclude hydro-electric projects from the ambit of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977, has evoked strong protests from the BJP regime in Himachal Pradesh.