CHANDIGARH, India: The breakaway Akali Dal has announced that it would reject the award of Eradi Tribunal on the sharing of RaviBias waters regardless of whatever the judgment.
Announcing the decision of the Working Committee of the Akali Dal (B) which met here on Saturday, Mr. Amarinder Singh, leader of the legislature party, warned that any attempt by the center to force the decision of the Eradi Tribunal on Punjab will be met by the people’s movement. A long resolution adopted at the meeting and release to the press called for the total review of water requirements of Punjab keeping in view the riparian right of the state and scraping all the agreements on river water from 1955 onwards. While his party has full sympathy for the wellbeing of the people of Haryana and Rajasthan it could not be at the cost of people of Punjab.
The comprehensive review of the need and fair allocation for these states must therefore also take into consideration the use of around 100 million acres of Ganga water. A part of its flow could provide irrigation to Haryana and even Rajasthan, not to mention the surplus water of the Yamuna and Narbhada also going to waste.
Amarinder Singh said that a commission should be set up to look into the needs of the entire disputed states as per riparian principles. The Barnala Government should have rejected the present terms of reference of Ravi Tribunal at the outset as the future of Punjab was to be secured. The present scope of the tribunal was totally inadequate for justice to be done to the state.
He regretted that his party’s appeal to the Barnala government on the subject had fallen on deaf ears, The government was more interested in staying in power rather than standing for the rights of the people of Punjab and to ensure the prosperity of future generations. Akali Dal (B) leader however, emphasized that the commission set up or any amendments to the terms of reference of Eradi Tribunal should take into account Punjab’s riparian rights as outlined in the constitution and after setting aside the unilateral center’s decisions of 1955, 71, and 76, as well as, Indira Gandhi’s decision and subsequent 1983 Darbara Singh’s agreement to receive his party’s full support. In a resolution on unity the meeting said that Akali Dal (B) has made it clear that it stood for no compromise on the sanctity of gurdwaras and the weakening of Sikh tradition.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 23, 1987
