Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Friday met with his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar to discuss the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue. However, the meeting remained inconclusive. Punjab bluntly refused to give water to Haryana saying that the state does not have water to share.
CM Mann said that the Chief Minister of Haryana spoke about the reconstruction of the canal which was closed on the issue of water, but when Punjab does not have enough water then the question of building the canal does not arise.
After the meeting, Manohar Lal Khattar said, “The construction of SYL issue is a matter of our life and death.”
Earlier also, a meeting was held with former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat. There was no consensus in the meeting with Punjab then. The Supreme Court has asked for the construction of SYL, but Punjab has not agreed with the proposal.
The Haryana CM said that the state government will inform Union Minister Gajendra Shekhawat about the meeting.
Arguing his case, Punjab CM Mann said that the state is getting only 27 percent of its water from rivers and streams, and 73 percent of water is being supplied from land. So the question of giving water does not arise. Mann added, “Haryana is our younger brother, to solve the problem we will walk together to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ask him to supply water from Ganga or Yamuna.”
Mann also said that when Haryana was formed in 1966, Yamuna went to Haryana. “If we do not get any share from Yamuna, then why should we give water from Sutlej-Beas?”
He said that when the dam overflows during the rainy season, states such as Haryana and Rajasthan advocate for not releasing water. But when we need water for Punjab’s crucial need, they ask for it. “Such a double standards cannot work”, Mann said.
The Supreme Court had on September 6 directed the Union Jal Shakti Ministry to convene a meeting between the governments of Punjab and Haryana to resolve the canal dispute. A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath, while hearing the SYL Canal issue between Haryana and Punjab asked the central government to hold a meeting between both the States and granted four months to file a report on the meeting.
The apex court is scheduled to hear the matter on 19 January 2023.
During its September 6 hearing, the bench observed that natural resources have to be shared, particularly in view of the security scenario in Punjab.
“Water is a natural resource and living beings must learn to share it, whether it is individual or state. The matter cannot be looked at from the point of view of only one city or state. It’s the natural wealth to be shared and how it is to be shared is a mechanism to be worked out,” Justice Kaul said.
Attorney General for India K.K. Venugopal appearing for the Ministry, said that the Centre is trying to bring together the states of Punjab and Haryana.
Venugopal further said that Punjab is not cooperating in the matter. “The Centre had written a letter to the new Chief Minister of Punjab in April but there was no response,” he said.
To this, the bench directed all the parties to cooperate. “Either they sit and talk or the Court will order the execution of the decree. These issues should not be allowed to fester… It will allow forces that may not be amicable to the country to act and interfere,” observed the top court.
On 28 July 2020, the top court had asked the Chief Ministers of both states to make an attempt to resolve the issue amicably. The Ministry had earlier held several meetings which were attended by Chief Secretaries of the two states but remained inconclusive.
