Punjab and Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki is in a peculiar situation in the controversial SYl issue as both the neighbouring States are at loggerheads on sharing of water, leading to a crisis of sorts.
Solanki on Monday said the Haryana Government is committed to obtaining its legitimate share of Ravi-Beas waters and completion of Satluj-Yamuna link (SYl) canal, an issue on which the state is locked in a tussle with Punjab for over six decades.
The reference to the issue in his address to Haryana Assembly came a week after his speech in the Punjab Assembly where he had stated that Punjab’s right on waters of its rivers should be “safeguarded”.
A Governor by convention reads out the speech prepared by the State Government. With Solanki being incharge of both Punjab and Haryana, it has led to a piquant situation.
In his address in Punjab Assembly, he had appealed to the Centre to remove “discrimination” on instances like distribution of waters with neighboring states, Punjabi speaking areas and transfer of Chandigarh to give “justice” to the border state.
As he addressed the Haryana legislature, the Punjab Assembly this afternoon in a neighboring hall within the complex passed a bill introduced by the Parkash Singh Badal led SAD-BJP government to denotify the land which was acquired for the construction of the SYl canal in Punjab to carry Haryana’s share of Ravi Beas water.
The proposed measure has been slammed by Haryana even as Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal is slated to meet the Governor on Tuesday.
Solanki, delivering the Governor’s Address on the opening day of budget session of Haryana Assembly Monday afternoon, said, “The concerted efforts made by the government to secure early hearing of the Presidential Reference, which has been pending for the last more than 11 years, have borne fruit and the matter has now been taken up for regular hearing by the Supreme Court.”
In Punjab Assembly on March 8, Solanki had said the state government had been seeking a solution to the river water issue through implementation of the nationally and internationally accepted Riparian Principle on the distribution of river waters.
“This principle has been implemented to resolve river water disputes throughout the country,” he said. Noting that “injustice and discrimination” was meted out to Punjab on issue of its river waters, he said the people of state have also been heavily discriminated against brazen refusal of Centre to transfer its capital city Chandigarh to Punjab.
“Several Punjabi speaking areas left out of the state at the time of re-organization in 1966 have still not been included into Punjab,” he added.
Recently, days after the Supreme Court began hearing the Sutlej Yamuna link (SYl) Canal dispute upon Presidential Reference, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar had expressed the hope the Supreme Court’s decision on SYl Canal would be in favour of the state.
While Khattar leads BJP government in Haryana, the party is an ally of SAD in Punjab.
Due to continuous delay in the completion of canal, Haryana is unable to fully utilize about 3 lakh hectares of irrigation potential already created in the state and is losing incremental agricultural production of over 8 lakh tones per annum amounting to several crore of rupees besides having drinking water scarcity in several parts of the State.
Punjab enacted the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 just two days before the July 15, 2004 deadline when the Centre was to take over physical possession of the canal from Punjab Irrigation Department and hand over the construction to the CPWD for completion.
The state had taken the stand that endeavor should be to determine the share of Punjab rivers on acknowledged principles of distribution and allocation between the “riparian” states, namely, on the basis of the equitable share of each state.
Interestingly, none of the states that have been a party to the unsolved issue is a riparian state, except Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The other non-riparian states are Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.