CHANDIGARH: The Eradi Tribunal set up to determine the shares of Punjab and Haryana in the Ravi Beas waters has been expanded with the addition of two more members, The new members are Justice A.M. Ahmadi of Gujrat High Court and Justice P.C.Balakrishna Menon of Kerala High Court. The expansion is a formal decision to bring the Eradi Tribunal under the inter-State River Waters Tribunal Act, 1956. Parliament passed the amended Eradi Water Tribunal bill early this week. The Act provides for three members Tribunal. The term of Eradi Tribunal expired yesterday and from today onward it will function under the authority of the amended legislation, Mr. Justice Balakrishna Eradi of the Supreme Court was appointed chairman of the Tribunal in terms of the Punjab Accord which stipulated the appointment of such a Tribunal, The Government has put the following issues before the Tribunal:

  1. Verification of the usages of the water claim by the farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan from the Ravi-Beas system as on the first day of July, 1985 and the water used for the consumption purposes.
  2. The claims of Punjab and Haryana regarding the share in the remaining waters. The Constitution of the first Tribunal was envisaged in paragraph 9-1 and 9-2 of memorandum of settlement signed by the Prime Minister and the late Sant Harchand Singh Longowal. The Tribunal’s headquarters will be in Delhi and it will submit its report by Sept.2nd, 1986 C.M. Punjab. Mr.Surjit Singh Bamala said yesterday that the Punjab Government is committed to the completion of the S.Y.L. Canal as per the terms of the accord. He announced that in the interest of the economy the remaining construction work would be entrusted to a public sector undertaking in consultation with the planning commission which would continue to monitor the progress of work, He also said that the Punjab Government will ensure that the time schedule drawn up by the construction of the canal will be observed. He said that land still required for the Canal will be acquired on Emergency basis.

Article extracted from this publication >> April 12, 1991