Punjab assembly passes resolution, demands payment from neighbouring states

The Punjab assembly yesterday passed a unanimous resolution against sharing of river waters with other states.
The resolution, moved by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal during the assembly’s special one-day session, was adopted in the absence of 42 Congress legislators who resigned on November 11 from the 117-member house to protest against a Supreme Court verdict ordering the state to share river waters with its neighbours.
The court had dubbed a 2004 law passed by the Punjab assembly to end a water-sharing agreement as “unconstitutional”.
Yesterday’s resolution even asked the Punjab government to demand payment from other states for the river water supplied to them over the past few decades. It asked the government to seek the central government’s help to recover water dues from Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Addressing the assembly, Badal reiterated that Punjab did not have even a single drop of river water to spare and no water would be allowed to flow to Haryana.
Badal said: “The state government will do everything possible to stop water from flowing to Haryana. We will not implement the (Supreme) Court order at any cost; not a drop of water from Punjab will be given to anyone even if we have to go to jail.”
The assembly also asked the Punjab government and its departments and agencies not to hand over land to any agency and not to co-operate in the construction of the controversial Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.
“Any decision to rob the state of its legitimate rights on river waters will not be acceptable to me nor to the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance government in the state,” Badal said.
Taking strong exception to the absence of Congress legislators, Badal blamed the opposition party and its leadership for “betraying Punjab and its people on territorial issues, including river waters.”
The Punjab government on Tuesday ordered de-notification of nearly 5,000 acres of land acquired for the SYL canal nearly four decades ago.
BJP legislators from Haryana yesterday met Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore and asked him to block the Punjab government’s move to de-notify the acquired land. Led by Haryana BJP president Subhash Barala, the legislators urged the governor not to give assent to the move.
Haryana claims to be a water deficit state and has said it has been deprived of more than half of its legitimate share of 3.50mn acre feet (MAF) of surplus Ravi-Beas water, which has led to a reduction in agriculture production.
The Supreme Court had earlier accepted Haryana’s petition for an early hearing on the issue of the SYL canal.
Haryana has a BJP government while in Punjab, the BJP is an alliance partner with the ruling Akali Dasl since 2007.
The BJP legislators said the Punjab government’s move was in contempt of the Supreme Court verdict.
The two states are in the midst of a political and legal war over water sharing through the SYL canal, which has remained at the centre of controversy for four decades without a drop of water actually flowing in the canal.
In March this year, the Punjab assembly had “unanimously” passed a bill to return the land acquired for the construction of the canal.
Within hours, the Haryana assembly passed a “unanimous resolution” condemning the passage of the bill by the Punjab assembly. It had described the move as “unilateral, unconstitutional and denying the authority of the Supreme Court.”
The then Congress government in Punjab in 2004 scrapped the water sharing agreements with the neighbouring states and refused to give any water to others, especially Haryana.
The SYL canal that was to link the two major rivers of Sutlej and Yamuna in Punjab and Haryana, was planned and major portions of it were even completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs7.5bn at that time. It is entangled in a political and legal quagmire with Punjab and Haryana unwilling to give up their respective stands.