The ongoing Haryana-Delhi "jal yudh' has taken a new turn. For the first time, Haryana has been able to convince the centre of the genuineness of its grievance about Delhi drawing the Yamuna water much in excess of its bona fide needs, leaving the people and fields of Haryana thirsty. T.K. Nair, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, has asked the Central Water Commission (CWC) to assess the domestic water needs of Delhi within three months. The commission has also been asked to find out from what other sources the non-domestic water needs of Delhi can be met. According to irrigation minister Ajay Singh Yadav, the issue came up for discussion during a meeting convened by T.K. Nair last month. Haryana chief secretary Dharamvir and financial commissioner (irrigation) R.N. Prashar forcefully pleaded the case of Haryana and bluntly told Nair that Delhi was unjustified in wasting precious water on non-domestic needs, particularly when the state's fields were parched. The Haryana officers conceded that the Supreme Court was right when it held that the drinking water needs had precedence over the irrigational needs and had directed Haryana to meet the drinking water needs of Delhi. Nair reportedly found weight in the argument advanced by Prashar that there was an urgent need to quantify the drinking water needs of Delhi because it was criminal wastage to use fresh water for industrial, flush and horticulture uses. He said it would have to be decided once and for all whether industrial, flush and horticulture uses of water in Delhi should have a priority over agriculture in Haryana. "The question is you need grass in Delhi or wheat and rice in Haryana,' Prashar is reported to have asked the meeting. Since the 1996 apex court order merely asked Haryana to keep the Hyderpur and Wazirabad reservoirs in the national capital full and did not fix the quantity of water, Delhi is allegedly taking undue advantage of the judicial verdict. Delhi lifts a large quantity of water through about 100 tubewells and "renee wells' it has installed in the 20-km distance between the Munak escape, from where Haryana supplies water to Delhi, and Palla village, where Delhi accepts it. So Haryana has to supply additional quantity to comply with the Supreme Court judgment.