Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, 4 July 2026, took to X to highlight what he described as a stark contrast between BJP and Congress governments on addressing Rajasthan's chronic water crisis, specifically pointing to a forthcoming joint effort by Rajasthan and Haryana to carry water to the Shekhawati region.

In the post, Modi wrote in Hindi: 'कांग्रेस की सरकारों ने राजस्थान के जल-संकट को दूर करने के लिए कभी कोई ठोस काम नहीं किया।' ('Congress governments never did any concrete work to resolve Rajasthan's water crisis.') He added that BJP governments had already channelled water from the Narmada River in Gujarat to Rajasthan, and that Rajasthan and Haryana would now jointly extend that reach to Shekhawati.

Context

Shekhawati — covering the districts of Sikar, Jhunjhunu, and Churu in northern Rajasthan — is a semi-arid belt that has faced severe groundwater depletion for decades. State water policy documents from the 2000s and 2010s consistently flagged the region as a priority zone, yet large-scale surface-water infrastructure remained elusive. Households and farmers in the belt have historically depended on overexploited aquifers and seasonal rainfall.

Policy Backdrop

The foundation for Narmada water reaching Rajasthan was laid by the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal award of 1979, which allocated 0.5 MAF of water to the state. The raising of the Sardar Sarovar Dam height through the 2002–2010 period enabled initial flows from Gujarat into Rajasthan, a development Modi cited as an earlier BJP-era achievement. The national river-interlinking framework, formally pursued from 2002 onward, provides the broader policy architecture within which such inter-state transfers are designed.

Modi's post frames the proposed Rajasthan–Haryana collaboration as a continuation of that lineage — BJP governments at the state and central levels working in concert on surface-water transfers that, he argues, Congress administrations in Rajasthan did not prioritise during their tenures from 2013–2018 and 2018–2023.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries, if the project advances, would be Shekhawati farmers and rural households who have long struggled with water insecurity. The Haryana irrigation department would be a key institutional partner, as any inter-state pipeline or canal network would require coordinated infrastructure and water-sharing arrangements between the two states. Farmers across the region have repeatedly flagged irrigation shortfalls as a constraint on crop yields.

The political dimension is equally significant. Rajasthan returned a BJP government in 2023, and water security in the state's arid north is a longstanding electoral concern. Modi's framing positions the project as a deliverable tied directly to BJP governance at both the state and national levels.

What's Next

A formal inter-state agreement or detailed project report between Rajasthan and Haryana for the Shekhawati water supply corridor has not yet been made public, and the exact scope, funding, and timeline of the project remain to be announced. Observers will watch upcoming state assembly sessions in both states for budgetary allocations and any memoranda of understanding. Should a DPR be cleared and funding committed, it would mark a significant step in resolving one of northern Rajasthan's most persistent infrastructure deficits.