One of the oldest disputes of Independent India, over six -decade-old water dispute between Northern States on Thursday assumed a new dimension with the Supreme Court holding as unconstitutional the 2004 law passed by Punjab to terminate the Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYl) canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring States.
The judgement makes it clear that the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 is “unconstitutional” and Punjab could not have taken a “unilateral” decision to terminate the water sharing agreement with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh.
By the 2004 Act brought by the then Congress Government led by Capt Amarinder Singh, the state had sought to nullify the SC verdict by stopping the construction of the remaining part of the SYl canal.
The water dispute between the northern states continues even 61 years after the first agreement signed in 1955 which was followed by a number of agreements, including the 1960 Indus Water Treaty, 1966 Punjab Reorganization Act, the 1981 Indira Gandhi award as also 1985 Rajiv longowal Accord besides litigations in the Supreme Court, the first one being in 1976 when Punjab took the initiative in approaching the Apex Court.
As per the agreement of 1955, signed between the states of Punjab, Pepsu, Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan, Punjab (including Pepsu) was allocated 7.20 Million Acre Feet (MAF) surplus waters of the Ravi and Beas estimated at 15.85 MAF, based on flow series of 1921-45, excluding pro-partition use, Rajasthan was allocated 8.0 MAF and Jammu & Kashmir 0.65 MAF.
Haryana was carved out on the reorganization of erstwhile State of Punjab on November 1, 1966, and as per Section 78 of the Reorganisation Act of 1966, the right to receive and to utilise the waters available for distribution, as a result of the Bhakra Nangal Project and BEAS Project, became the right of the successor states in such proportion as may be made by an agreement entered into by the said States after consultation with the Central Government.
This Section also provided that if no such agreement was entered into within two years of the appointed day, the Centre may by orders determine the shares of the States having regard to the purpose of the projects.
Since the State of Punjab and Haryana could not arrive at any amicable settlement, Government of India by its notification dated March 24, 1976, determined the distribution of waters of Ravi and Beas among the States of Haryana, Punjab and Delhi.