The plan stands completely exposed with the Haryana Chief Minister for the first time openly making his (and the Centers) intentions clear: “Haryana shall not be bound by any decision under the Punjab accord until the S.Y.L. canal is built” (Indian Express: December 17, 1985). But the Punjab Chief Minister reacted by stating that January 26, 1986 “comes first” and August 15, 1986, later. Chandigarh in terms of the Punjab accord is to be transferred to Punjab on January 26, 1986, while the S.Y.L canal is planned to be completed by August 15, 1986,

The Centre (and the Haryana Government) knows that the S.Y.L canal cannot be built according to the schedule laid down in the accord. The accord also envisages the establishment of a tribunal under the Inter State River Waters Disputes Act. The amount of water for Haryana, thus, is to be determined by the proposed tribunal. How can the SYL canal be built before the establishment of the tribunal? A tribunal cannot be set up because Haryana has no constitutional right to share Punjab rivers water. A tribunal can only be set up to share water between or among riparian states. Since this is not possible to be done, the Centre and the Haryana Government are keen on linking Chandigarh with the S.Y.L. canal

Delhi also tried other ways. The Prime Minister called a conference of Chief Ministers Irrigation and power Ministers last month to lecture them on the “water a national asset” theme, Mr, Rajiv Gandhi like his mother and grandfather interpret the term “national” as the Central Government and the Central Government as the Nehru family. Therefore, water belongs to the Nehru family and it is free to give any amount of water to any State of its choice. That is precisely why the water of Punjab Rivers was given by the Nehru family to Rajasthan in 1955; this family gave the Narbada Rivers Water to Rajasthan, This family again intervened to give Krishan rivers water to Tamil Nadu. The Bhakra Mainline canal was forced down Punjab’s throat by Nehru acting as Chairman of the Planning Commission although the then Punjab Chief Minister was reluctant.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 17, 1986