A day after the Supreme Court awarded Himachal Pradesh 11,973 million units of power in settlement of its long-pending BBMB dues, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu disclosed that some behind-the-scenes efforts helped secure the state’s claim.Speaking at his residence while celebrating the verdict on Saturday, Sukhu said his government strategically linked the proposed Kishau Dam project with the settlement of Himachal’s BBMB arrears and leveraged Haryana’s need for additional water from the project to break the deadlock in the case.“I had found out that Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan needed additional water that would come from the Kishau Dam. I saw an opportunity to remove the hurdles in our BBMB arrears case. We agreed to sign the MoU for the construction of Kishau Dam only after Haryana agreed to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that it had no objection to the settlement of the state’s dues,” Sukhu said.CM can’t claim creditBJP leader Jai Ram Thakur criticised Sukhu for “attempting” to claim credit for the BBMB settlement. “The SC decision represents three decades of legal struggle, successive state governments’ efforts and Centre’s contribution,” he said.He said that ahead of the signing of the Kishau Dam MoU earlier this year, the state government had written to the Centre on December 16, making it clear that Himachal would sign the agreement only if Haryana stopped creating hurdles in the settlement of its BBMB arrears.“We made it clear to the Centre that it would have to convince Haryana to agree to the settlement of our BBMB arrears if it wanted us to sign the Kishau Dam MoU,” Sukhu said, adding that state officials had also conveyed the same message during their meetings with the Union Power Secretary.Highlighting his government’s resolve to settle the long-pending issue, the Chief Minister said previous governments had failed to pursue the matter with the required urgency.“The Supreme Court had decided the case in our favour in 2011, yet we did not get our rightful dues because there was a lack of political will. The urgency was missing and replies were not filed on time. Our single-engine government delivered what the double-engine government couldn’t,” he said.Sukhu also said receiving power instead of cash as arrears would yield greater long-term benefits for the state.“Had we taken the arrears in cash, the benefits would have been far lower. Power prices will continue to rise with time, so the state stands to gain much more by receiving electricity,” he said.The Chief Minister said he had directed officials to explore the best ways to utilise the additional power and generate annual revenue of around Rs 10,000 crore.“We are already selling power to Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Kerala at around Rs 14-15 per unit. We would earn nearly Rs 10,000 crore if we are able to sell the BBMB power at even Rs 10 per unit,” he said.