CHANDIGARH: Punjab irrigation and power minister Harcharan Singh Brar announced here last week his government’s stand that Haryana and Rajasthan had no ‘locus standi to claim a share from the hydro-electric projects in the State, The minister “rejected” an agreement of May 10,1984, signed on behalf of Punjab by the then governor B.D. Pandey. The other sign a tones were Haryana chief minister Bhajan Lal, Rajasthan chief minister S.C. Mathur and the then union minister for energy, Shiv Shanker.
The agreement was engineered by (the then prime minister) Indira Gandhi when she was planning to invade the Golden Temple and other areas of Punjab. The agreement took note of the “claims” of Haryana and Rajasthan on sharing the power generated at Anandpur Saheb hydel project, Mukerian hydel project, Then dam project, Upper Bari Doab canal state Il and Shahpur Kandi hydel scheme,
It provided for the reference of the claims by the Indian government to the Supreme Court for its “opinion” which would be binding on the states. In case the court expressed no opinion for any reason, the matter would be referred to the Supreme Court for appointment of a judge of that court whose “award” shall be binding on all the states as well as the Bhakra Beas Management Board, In the event of the court neither expressing its “opinion” on the merits of the claims nor appointing a judge, the parties agreed that the Indian government shall refer the matter to a judge of the Supreme Court and that the “award” of the judge will be binding on all the three states and the B.B.M.B. The agreement also provided for the administration maintenance and operation of Anandpur Saheb hydel project head regulator by the center-controlled B.B.M.B. In other words, the agreement made the power generated by the projects located with in Punjab and executed and financed by the Punjab government as divisible among Haryana and Rajasthan also while, in addition, the management and control of the Anandpur Saheb head regulator was entrusted to the B.B.M.B. Harayna and the central government had really started treating the Anandpur Saheb hydel channel as the upper portion of the S.Y.L. canal even before work on the S.Y.L. canal was started. In addition, certain officers of Punjab such as Tejinder Khanna, R.P. Ohja and Paramjit Singh on Delhi’s signals had started describing the channel as the S.Y.L. canal and had started claiming from Haryana. a share in its expenditure,
The Punjab minister described the agreement as unprecedented, unconstitutional and unacceptable. Brar said he had written a letter to the union energy minister rejecting the agreement,
The minister said that the agreement had been reached at a time when Punjab was eager to link up the Anandpur Saheb hydel channel with the Nangal dam and had sought closure of the Bhakra Mainline canal for a few days to make it possible for the Punjab State electricity board to draw a small quantity of water for the Ropar thermal plant.
The agreement had a built-in black-mail of Punjab because what the PSEB wanted was 600 cusecs of water out of Punjab’s own share and not from the share of any other State. Harayna and Rajasthan agreed to the closure of the canal only after Punjab had signed the agreement,
Brar said he was making the Statement not only after consult in i.e .Beant Singh but also a few other senior ministers of Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> Aug 28, 1992
