The Hindu : Front Page : SYL canal issue: Centre to seek Supreme Court direction

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Thursday, Jul 15, 2004

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SYL canal issue: Centre to seek Supreme Court direction

By Gargi Parsai

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. The Central Government will file an application in the Supreme Court tomorrow to indicate its compliance with the Court's order of June 4 on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue and seek a direction in view of Punjab's latest action of abrogating all accords on sharing the Ravi-Beas waters with Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, convened a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) late tonight to discuss the issue. The meeting endorsed the stand to seek directions of the Supreme Court on the SYL canal issue.The CCPA meeting follows four separate meetings the Prime Minister has held since yesterday with the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.

After meeting Dr. Singh, the Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, said she would take legal action against the "denial" of Rajasthan's share of the waters. She said Dr. Singh had assured her that the rights of all States would be protected.

The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, Vir Bhadra Singh, said the Punjab Government had taken a "unilateral and hurried decision. It should have consulted all the basin States."

Sources said the Centre would report to the Supreme Court that it had appointed the Central Public Works Department to undertake completion of the SYL canal in Punjab. It had also constituted an Empowered Committee with the Chairman of the Central Water Commission as its head. The panel has members from Punjab, Haryana and the Union Ministries of Water Resources and Home. The Punjab Government was originally supposed to hand over the SYL site to CPWD engineers on July 15 but two days ago, it suddenly brought forth the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act abrogating the water accords.

The sources said that even as Punjab had come up with an Act to prevent the completion of the canal, it had kept in readiness its Chief Engineer, SYL, to hand over the site to the CPWD engineers. Both sides have already discussed details of the works involved and the balance of works that remained.

Experts say that Punjab has created a constitutional crisis, which might lead to a full-judge Bench hearing. If that happens, the matter may be stretched till the Assembly elections in Haryana, in which the Congress has a high stake.

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