Hussainiwala : Hundreds of cusecs of water are being pushed to Pakistan from this barrage, located at a few yards from the Radcliffe Line demarcating the Indo-Pak border, by the state Irrigation and Drainage Department authorities to maintain the level of the Hussainiwala pond. Official sources said that about 1,800 cusecs of water were released to Pakistan today by the authorities despite the fact that not a single drop was released into the irrigation system which originates from this barrage. A cross section of officials of the Irrigation and Drainage Department pointed out that the level of water in the Sutlej river was never this high in June in the previous years under normal circumstances. In September 2010, all 29 gates of the Hussainiwala barrage were opened to divert the flood water of a swollen Sutlej to Pakistan. All the gates of this barrage were opened after about 22 years. Sources added that in normal circumstances, the level at the Hussainiwala pond was maintained at 48.5 ft. However, it was at 48.8 ft at the moment. Hence, the authorities took the decision to release extra water to Pakistan through the Sutlej from the barrage. Information gathered by The Tribune revealed that two canals, namely Eastern Canal and Gang Canal, were set up to take water from this barrage to Rajasthan and various parts of Punjab through a network of irrigations channels, spread in Ferozepur, Faridkot and Muktsar districts. As the state irrigation authorities had stopped feeding the Gang Canal from this point many years ago, the Eastern Canal remained the only channel to take water from this barrage to various parts of Punjab. Hence, whenever the Eastern Canal was closed, the authorities had to divert water to Pakistan. Jaswant Singh Sandhu, Executive Engineer (XEN), Irrigation, said that in Ladhu Ke and Mamdot areas, which were being fed by Ladhu Ka and Mamdot distributaries of the Eastern Canal, there was no demand of water as the farmers were yet to irrigate their fields for transplantation of the basmati variety of paddy. He added that though water was released in these distributaries in the past few days, some breaches had occurred in these after the water overflowed due to negligible demand by farmers and hence, these were closed. He said that sometimes, an increase in the quantum of release of water from the Bhakra Dam by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) also forces them to release water to Pakistan to maintain the level of Hussainiwala pond.