The Hindu : National : Punjab's chequered history of river waters dispute

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 14, 2004

National

National

Punjab's chequered history of river waters dispute

By Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH, JULY 13. With the Punjab Assembly unanimously passing the Punjab Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004, the inter-State river waters sharing dispute, which has a chequered history, has once again assumed centre-stage. The recent judgment by the Supreme Court, directing the Union Government to complete the portion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in the State, also contributed in focussing the spotlight on the issue.

While the development could pose some tough moments for the Congress, which controls power both at the Centre and in Punjab, while the party eyes a comeback in Haryana, where Assembly polls are round the corner. But the Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh, has hijacked an agenda of different shades of the Akali leadership.

Punjab has all along maintained that "justice" should be done as per the recognised international riparian laws. Interestingly, none of the States that have been a party to the unsolved issue is a riparian State, except Punjab and Jammu & Kashmir. The other non-riparian States are Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.

Going into the archives, reveals that the Indus Waters Treaty was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, under which water of the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej were reserved for exclusive use by India after transition period. But the roots of the inter-State dispute began in 1966, when the Indian Punjab was reorganised. The Reorganisation Act, Section 78, provides for the apportioning of rights and liabilities of the existing State of Punjab among the successor States in relation to the Bhakhra-Nangal project and the Beas project, by agreement entered into by States after consultation with the Centre.

In April 1976, the Centre through a notification ruled that of available 15.2 million acre feet (MAF) of the water of the Sutlej, the Ravi and the Beas, Punjab and Haryana would be allocated 3.5 MAF each. Punjab filed a suit in the Supreme Court against the decision as well as challenged the validity of Section 78 of the Reorganisation Act.

In 1981, while the suit was still pending, the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, convened a meeting of the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, on December 31. They inked an agreement according to which the flow series were changed from 1921-45 to 1921-60, resulting in an increase of the available of the Ravi and Beas waters from 15.85 MAF to 17.17 MAF. Punjab withdrew its suit.

On April 8, 1982, Ms. Gandhi broke the ground near Kapuri village of Patiala district to mark the beginning of construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. On the same day the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) along with the State unit of the CPI(M) launched a Morcha against the canal. This metamorphosed into the "Dharam Yudh Morcha" of the SAD from the Akal Takhat in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. The agitation assumed violent proportions and Punjab suffered terrorism for almost a decade.

On July 24, 1985 the then Prime Ministers, Rajiv Gandhi, and the SAD chief, Sant Harchand Singh Longowal, signed the Punjab Accord, whose Clause(9) pertained to sharing of river waters.

It was decided to constitute a tribunal headed by a Supreme Court judge. The settlement also stipulated completion of SYL by August 15, 1986.

Later the SAD Ministry in Punjab, headed by the Chief Minister, S.S. Barnala, initiated the construction of SYL. More than Rs. 800 crores was said to have been spent on the project. But no a brick has moved since 1992, when terrorists shot dead two top Engineers and nearly two dozen labourers working on the project.

In 1986, the Union Government set up a tribunal to adjudicate the waters of Ravi and Beas rivers. The Eradi Tribunal, which was constituted in its report of January 30, 1987, made an allocation of water granting the non-riparian States, Rajasthan 8.60 MAF, Haryana 3.83 MAF, Delhi 0.20 MAF. The riparian Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir got 5.00 MAF and 0.65 MAF, respectively.

This was followed by Punjab filing a review application before the Tribunal on August 9, 1987, against the award given by it under Section 5(3) of the Inter-State Water Disputes Act. Interestingly, that application, seeking review, is still pending before the tribunal and the Centre, all these years, as the mandatory technical member on the tribunal could not be appointed.

In 1999, Haryana moved the Supreme Court seeking construction of the SYL canal. Though the court had asked the Centre to intervene between the two States, it did not help.

A judgment that was kept pending was pronounced last year directing Punjab to complete the SYL canal within one year. Punjab filed a review petition, which was finally rejected, as the apex court directed the Union Government to undertake the construction through its agencies.

Punjab argued that while 17.17 MAF was earlier believed to have been available in the Ravi-Beas systems, the 1981-2002 data depicted the flow to be only 14.37 MAF.

While the groundwater in the State is fast receding, any transfer of water to Haryana would render nine lakh acres of irrigated land in Ferozepur, Bathinda, Muktsar, Moga, Mansa and Faridkot districts as barren.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National