According to sources, Haryana ``increased supply'' for Delhi on Friday and the water was expected to reach plants by Tuesday or Wednesday. Senior officials from Haryana irrigation department, including the chief secretary, are slated to meet the PM's principal secretary T K A Nair on Tuesday to sort out the water sharing issue. With the PMO now having stepped in, the Delhi government is hoping nothing will go wrong with the supply, at least till Holi.

Haryana is now releasing 678 cusecs against their usual 600 cusecs. Delhi Jal Board officials said since pond level had come down so drastically, the state should have released nothing less than 800-1,000 cusecs at present, and slowly tapered off the extra supply. However, after having maintained for a month now that they had not reduced supply and blaming Delhi of having picked up extra water from rainy wells and constructing unauthorised tubewells near Wazirabad, HID officials readily accepted that they had increased supply to 600 cusecs, infact adding an additional 78 cusecs to help Delhi.

``Water normally takes three days to reach the pond but it is taking longer this time since the river level is depleted and the Wazirabad pond level had come down to 671 feet as against the mandatory 674.2 feet. Even after the water comes, it will take us 3-4 days to stabilise the system and get maximum production from the plants,'' said Arun Mathur, CEO, DJB. ``What is needed now, other than an increased supply, is an inquiry into why the Capital was deprived of water for over a month. There exists a SC order saying Haryana is to supply a certain quantum of water to Delhi so this has amounted to a contempt of the same. Nearly 20-30 lakh people in the Capital suffered due to this,'' said Mathur.