CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Government has demanded that all amendments made on the water issue since the reorganization of the state in 1966 should be scrapped and the entire water dispute be claimed “de novo.”
The Government has taken the stand that its exclusion from the Interstate meet over the Yamuna may lead to “automatic inference” that Haryana is no longer riparian to any of the Punjab rivers after the reorganization.
This argument has been advanced in a letter the government is understood to have written to the Union Irrigation Minister V.C. Shukla who had presided over a meeting of the Himachal Pradesh Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh and Haryana Chief Ministers and the Lt. Governor of Delhi to evolve a sharing formula for the Yamuna waters in Delhi The letter expresses shock and astonishment over Punjab’s exclusion from the meeting.
The letter said the shock was compounded by the fact that in response to the Govern ment of Indias initiative concerning the constitution of a tribunal for examining the issue Punjab had lodged a strong protest in January this year against the exclusion of its claim in these waters and sought to be associated with any further deliberations on the subject.
The Governor Punjab had said in his letter of January 18 that when the Ravi Beas waters were apportioned between Punjab and Haryana through the “arbitrary notification of Government of India dated March 241976 against the express provisions of the Punjab Reorganization Act the waters of the Yamuna should also have been taken into account
The short point is that Punjab was as much riparian to the Yamuna waters before the reorganization as it was to the other rivers flowing through it” the Punjab Government said in its letter dispatched recently
Referring to the Delhi meet the letter said Doordarshan reports on July 19 and in newspapers the next day referred to the four states invited by Shukla as being riparian to the Yamuna waters meaning thereby that Punjab had not been appointed under the discussions on account of it having been adjudged non ripain,.
Perhaps we can draw consolation from the automatic of their Punjab no longer riparian to any rivers after the reorganization” the letter asserted. It also made clear that Rajasthan was never riparian to any of the Punjab’s rivers.
Stretching the argument further the letter said that’s Punjab had not been included in the states riparian to the Yamuna waters Haryana in the same manner should not be associated with any deliberations concerning the rivers which now flow through Punjab alone as indeed Rajasthan would also not be.
The letter said the Punjab Government had separately made its position clear on the Eradi Tribunal by saying that it was strongly opposed to the revival of the legal process in regard to the Tribunal which “in transgression of its own terms of reference” had belied the hopes and aspirations of the people of Punjab.
We have also made out position clear that while we stand for the resolution of the water dispute within the terms of the Constitution of India and the law established we also firmly hold the view that all decisions taken earlier and all averments made after the States reorganization in 1966 should be scrapped and the entire water dispute examined de novo the letter demanded.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 31, 1992
