Chandigarh, May 3 -- The Union home ministry on Friday told the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to go ahead with the release of an additional 4500 cusecs of water to Haryana for the next eight days from Saturday despite vehement protests by Punjab. The decision came after a meeting chaired by Union Home secretary Govind Mohan , and attended by representatives of Rajasthan , Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, the four partner states of BBMB, a home ministry spokesperson said. The BBMB, controlled by the Union Jal Shakti ministry, regulates water distribution from the Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar dams. The BBMB's technical committee, which has members from Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh, will meet on Saturday to work out the details of the release of water to Haryana, which currently gets 4000 cusecs. The demand for additional water was raised by Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on April 28. BBMB on Wednesday decided to allocate a total of 8500 cusecs of water to Haryana from the Bhakra dam. Punjab's Aam Aadmi Party government refused to accept BBMB's decision and stopped the release of water early on Thursday at the Nangal Dam 13 km downstream from Bhakra and deployed police to guard the dam. While Rajasthan and representatives of the BBMB lent support to Haryana's demand of 8,500 cusecs in the special board meeting, Himachal Pradesh abstained, said a BBMB official, who did not want to be identified. "It was also agreed that during the filling period of dams, BBMB will provide this excess water to Punjab to fulfil any additional requirements," said the spokesperson. As a consequence, Punjab is expected to place a fresh requirement as against its earlier demand for 8000 cusecs of water. Earlier in the day, all major political parties in Punjab declared that any attempt to forcibly allocate additional water to Haryana would be firmly opposed. Representatives of seven recognised political parties at a meeting in Chandigarh convened by chief minister Bhagwant Mann took the stand that Punjab does not have surplus water to share with anyone, and not a single drop of additional water will be given to Haryana from the Bhakra Dam. They also addressed a joint press conference. in which Mann said that the decision to release more water to Haryana was being thrust on Punjab, but all parties were together on the issue of safeguarding the state's waters. Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar, who attended the meeting, suggested that the representatives should meet PM Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah and seek their intervention to resolve this matter through negotiation. The state government has convened a special session of the Punjab assembly on May 5 to discuss and pass a resolution on the water issue....