Chandigarh, July 22
A meeting of the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan has been called by the Union Government on July 25 in Delhi to discuss various issues pertaining to river waters, according to informed sources.

The Union Water Resources Minister, Mr Arjan Sethi, will preside over the meeting. Among the issues to be discussed include completion of the SYL canal and handing over the control of certain river headworks in Punjab to the BBMB.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, left for Delhi early this morning. He may consult river waters experts to defend the state’s case at the meeting. The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala was also in Delhi yesterday.

Informed official sources told TNS today that while Haryana was building pressure on Punjab for the completion of the SYL canal within one year, as decided by the Supreme Court, Rajasthan — in tandem with Haryana — wanted that the control of Harike, Ropar and Ferozepore headworks, from where water to these states was released should be handed over to the BBMB like the Nangal headworks.

However, Punjab is not going to concede any of these demands. On the SYL canal issue, Punjab’s stand is very clear. It wanted that first share from the river waters should be decided and then the SYL canal issue taken up.

According to an estimate, Rs 600 crore is required for the completion of the SYL canal in the Punjab area. Why such a whopping amount should be spent on the canal, when no water from Punjab is supposed to flow in it ? These are some of the questions to be raised by the Punjab Government at the meeting. Punjab has got less water than Haryana which has less area than the parent state. As the state has no surplus water to give to Haryana, there is no need to construct the SYL canal. That will be the main thrust of Punjab’s arguments at the meeting, according to a senior officer of the state government.

As far as the issue of control of headworks in concerned, Punjab will say flat no to Rajasthan and Haryana. Tomorrow, Rajasthan will say that the control of the entire canal network in Punjab should be given to the BBMB. This is not acceptable to Punjab, says a senior functionary of the state government.

A Punjab Government officer says that the state government may insist on reopening the agreement pertaining to the sharing of the Yamuna river waters. Punjab was not called to the meeting held in December in 1994 to decide the share of water among Haryana, UP and Delhi.