Chandigarh, May 3 -- Amid the escalating water war between Punjab and Haryana, Union home secretary Govind Mohan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting in which it was decided that the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) will release 4,500 cusecs of extra water (8,500 cusecs in total) from Bhakra dam to Haryana for the next eight days to meet the state's urgent water requirements. "It was also agreed that during the filling period of the dams, the BBMB will provide this excess water to Punjab to fulfil their any additional requirements," said a spokesperson of ministry of home affairs. To work out the modalities, BBMB, which has members from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, has fixed a meeting on May 3. The Friday's meeting was convened following Punjab's refusal to accept the BBMB's decision to allocate 4500 cusecs of additional water to Haryana . On Thursday, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann had ordered deployment of dozens of police personnel at Nangal dam (Rupnagar district) to prevent water being released to Haryana, saying they will not tolerate "robbery" of state's rights. Senior officials of the Government of India, BBMB and the partner states of BBMB attended the meeting. Punjab was represented by additional chief secretary (home) Aloke Shekhar and principal secretary (water resources) Krishan Kumar. The two officers had attended the meeting when as chief secretary KAP Sinha is on leave. Haryana was represented by additional chief secretary, irrigation, Anurag Agrawal. Secretary, Union water resources ministry, Debashree Mukherjee, and Secretary, Union power ministry, Pankaj Agrawal were also present in the meeting. According to the people privy to the matter, the Union home secretary during the meeting told Punjab officials to immediately remove cops deployed at Nangal dam. He said that deployment of cops at Bhakra headworks at Nangal, to take control of the regulator gates by locking them, was unwarranted and could create confrontation. "Over a rather insignificant volume of water, a situation akin to war between two neighbouring states is being created," Punjab officials were told. Following Punjab cops taking control of the regulator gates, BBMB chairman has again written to the home ministry to deploy CISF personnel to guard the dam. Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are partnering states that meet their water requirements from Bhakra and Pong dams managed by the BBMB. A fresh row erupted over water sharing between the two neighbouring states, with AAP-ruled Punjab refusing to release more water to BJP-ruled Haryana. Punjab capped the Bhakra water supply to Haryana at 4,000 cusecs, even as the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue has been a bone of contention between the two states for the past several years....