CHANDIGARH: As the Haryana government has decided to approach the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Punjab government to complete the Satluj Yamuna Ling canal, the Punjab government is of the opinion that the larger issue of apportionment of the river waters between the two states requires de novo examination on the basis of established riparian laws, the Constitution and the conventions. It is only thereafter that it can be seen whether the SYL canal, which is carry water to Haryana from Punjab rivers, is to be constructed or not,

The issue earlier cropped up at the two meetings between the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr. Harcharan Singh Brar, and his Haryana counterpart, Mr. Bhajan Lal. According to the sources, Mr. Brar tried to impress upon the Haryana Chief Minister that the entire issue of water dispute be reopened to resolve the controversial apportionment, the matter ended there.

Highly placed sources in the Punjab government said the state government ‘would contest the case the Haryana government take resources to the legal remedy.

These sources said political compulsions in the wake of the forthcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls were dictating the attitude of the Bhajan Lal government, The survival ‘of Mr, Bhajan Lal depends to a large measure upon the issue of SYL; specially after the devastating floods in the state.

It is not for the first time that the Haryana government has decided to seek the legal remedy. The Haryana government approached the Supreme Court earlier in April, 1979 for the implementation of the Government of India award of March 24, 1976. ‘The Punjab government filed a suit in July, 1979 against what is described as the Emergency award. The suits were withdrawn following the” a present” entered into by Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan on December 31, 198) at the behest of the Center. ‘The present stand of the Punjab government goes back to the speech made by the then Irrigation and Power Minister, Mr, Harcharan Singh Brar, at the 10th national conference on water resources in September, 1992, presided over by the Prime Minister, Mr P.V, Narasimha Rao. Explaining the case of the Punjab government at that conference, Mr. Brar had stated that as against the requirement of 39.75 MAF of water, the state has only 14.54 MAP of river waters and Forrest of the requirement, it had to depend upon tube well irrigation. The area under canal irrigation in Punjab is only 40% as compared to 60% under tube well irrigation. He concluded his speech with the plea that the state should be provided its legitimate share in unutilized waters of all the rivers in Punjab at the time of its division in 1966. As Chief Minister, Mr. Brar is now in a better position to forcefully argue the case.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 24, 1995