Even as tempers rise over the twin issues of the Hansi Butana canal and construction of a toe wall by Haryana to strengthen the Ghaggar bundh, Punjab today maintained the issue could be resolved only if the Ghaggar waters were allowed to run their natural course. This means removal of the siphons where the Ghaggar waters cross under the Hansi Butana canal at Sarala village in Punjab and dismantling of the toe wall, being constructed on a 4 km-stretch along the Ghaggar embankment near Tatiana village in Haryana. Punjab Chief Engineer, Drainage, Vinod Chaudhary maintains what is non-technical will always remain so and no amount of promises of construction of more siphons by Haryana would make matters right. He said the siphon constructed by Haryana at Sarala village was not technically sound due to which it functioned at only one-tenth of its 1.65 lakh cusecs capacity. Chaudhary said the fact that the siphon was constructed along a bend reduced the velocity of the river at that point, resulting in silting. The solution according to the Chief Engineer was dismantling the siphons and construction of new ones below the riverbed. This would remove the obstruction in the free flow of the Ghaggar. As regards the toe wall, Chaudhary said Haryana was justifying wrong planning by stating that a bundh existed at the site, which it had partly used as left embankment of the Hansi Butana canal. A toe wall was being constructed along this embankment. Chaudhary said the bundh had been constructed parallel to the Ghaggar and was aimed at saving adjoining areas from flooding. “But when a bundh is used as an embankment of a canal, it no longer serves the purpose for which it has been designed”, he said. He said natural breaches in bundhs when the water rose above a certain level provided relief, but the toe wall was being constructed to plug all weak spots permanently. “This means water will continue to dam up even after it reaches a level of 11 ft”, he said, adding that work on the toe wall should be halted. On Haryana’s claims that it was saving its area from flooding by constructing the toe wall, the Chief Engineer maintained that Punjab should not be made to suffer for Haryana’s “misdeeds”. He said heading up at the siphons as well as the Ghaggar bundh raised the level of water in the river due to which the Markanda river could not empty into it.