Political temperature has started rising in Punjab and Haryana as the Supreme Court takes up the inter-state river waters dispute on July 13. Though it is essentially a legal battle, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal is busy building a political case also to counter a negative verdict, if any. He will soon meet the Prime Minister with a multi-party delegation to stress that Punjab has no surplus water to share. The water royalty issue he has raked up has not found many takers and the Congress has neither opposed nor supported it.

The water dispute is essentially a political issue and Dr Manmohan Singh has the stature to resolve it. But will he jump into the muddy waters? More importantly, will the chief ministers concerned accept his advice? As the stakes are high, no state would like to be seen as a loser. Therefore, a settlement seems difficult, if not impossible.

The Supreme Court will only look into the legal side of the issue: Is the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, in accordance with Section 78 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. Section 78 deals with the division of the rights and liabilities of Punjab, on bifurcation, among the new states of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Under Section 78 the Centre issued a notification on March 24, 1976, stating that out of the available 15.2 million acre feet (MAF) waters of the Sutlej, the Ravi and the Beas, Punjab and Haryana would be allocated 3.5 MAF each, Delhi 0.20 MAF and Rajasthan 8.0 MAF. This was not acceptable to Punjab, which filed a suit in the Supreme Court, challenging the validity of Section 78 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966. Haryana filed a suit for implementing the Central Government's notification dated 24.3.1976.

While the issue was pending in the Supreme Court, an agreement was reached on December 31, 1981, signed by the chief ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh in the presence of Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister.

The next Punjab leadership said that the then CM had acted under Indira Gandhi's pressure. Besides, under the 1981 agreement the Ravi-Beas water availability was increased from 15.85 MAF under the 1921-45 flow series to 17.17 MAF under the 1921-60 series.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, passed an order directing Punjab to construct the Satluj Yamuna Link Canal so that Haryana could get its remaining share of water. Punjab began the construction work but then abandoned it. The court asked the Centre to finish the remaining part of the SYL Canal before the deadline of July 15, 2004.

However, on July 12, 2004, Capt Amarinder Singh, the then Chief Minister, took the unusual step of having the Punjab Termination of Agreements Bill, 2004, passed in the Vidhan Sabha. He did not consult his party boss, Sonia Gandhi. "I will be willing to resign, if need be", he asserted. The then Governor O.P Verma gave his assent to the Bill the same night.

The passing of the Act took the nation by storm. There were questions few had answers for:

a. Was the PTA Act justified and legal?

b. Did it tantamount to contempt of court?

c. Could the legislature do it?

d. Did the 1981 agreement have constitutional protection?

e. Would it survive judicial challenge?

"Never before has any Chief Minister in this country acted so outrageously as has Amarinder Singh in Punjab by enacting - suddenly and somewhat surreptitiously - a law termination all water-sharing agreements entered into by the State over the years", wrote noted columnist Inder Malhotra in The Hindu on July 18, 2004.

The Central government was caught in a bind. "Like a fish bone, the CM's decision sticks in the Centre's throat - the Prime Minister can neither swallow it nor spit it out" was Rajinder Puri's comment in The Tribune dated July 25, 2004

The Act had two serious implications

1. It knocked down the basis on which the Supreme Court had passed its order directing the Centre to complete the SYL Canal

2. It annualled the December 31, 1981, agreement signed by Punjab, Haryana and Himachal.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's argument was: If the SYL Canal is built, nine lakh acres of land in Punjab's Malwa region would go barren and put to risk the livelihood of 15 lakh families.

He strongly justified the Bill in the Assembly on July 12, 2004, in these words: "The state has been advised that the obligations arising from an agreement or a contract do not fetter the powers of the legislature to enact a law in public interest.

"We have been further advised that it is a well settled law that the legislature is competent to remove or take away the basis of judgement by law and thereby it does not encroach upon the exercise of the judicial power of the judiciary and the legislative action within its competence do not commit a contempt of court…"

Though the Akali Dal leadership was irked at the last-minute notice it was given about the proposed legislation, it whole-heartedly supported the abrogation of the previous water pacts by the Congress government.

Haryana's gain from the Supreme Court order on the SYL canal was nullified by the Punjab Act. Karan Singh Dalal, a former Agriculture Minister of Haryana, wrote in The Tribune on August 25, 2004:

"… during the last 38 years on at least 15 occasions Punjab could not and did not draw its allotted share from the Bhakra dam in spite of persistent requests and warnings by the BBMB, which had to discharge the water into the down flow river. In such an eventuality instead of wasting water and causing loss to farmers down stream, the waters can be discharged by the BBMB through the SYL. At a time of heavy downpour and flash floods, this canal can be a boon to Punjab for draining its flood water and Haryana can use it in the deserts of south Haryana"

The Punjab stand is: The riparian and basin principles were ignored in the allocation of the Ravi-Beas waters. Haryana and Rajasthan, being non-riparian, are not entitled to any waters. The international law upholds the riparian rights, which are the rights to use the waters of the rivers which flow entirely within the territory of a state. The Beas and the Sutlej rivers originate in Himachal Pradesh and flow throw Punjab. None of these pass through Haryana or Rajasthan.

Punjab says it has no surplus water. So there is no question of sharing any more waters through the SYL Canal. Its claim rests on this fact: The water availability of 17.17 MAF as on December 31, 1981, has reduced to 14.37 MAF as per the flow series of 1981-2002.

However, Section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act says that Haryana and Rajasthan will keep getting the same quantity of water that they have been getting through the existing canal systems like the Ganga canal and Indira Gandhi canal for Rajasthan and through the Bhakra canal for Haryana.

Water has always been an emotive subject in Punjab. It is going to become more so with the SAD-BJP government raising the issue of royalty on water flowing into other States. This even as the country awaits the fate of the Presidential reference on termination of all river water agreements by Punjab that will come up for hearing in the Supreme Court later this month.

Many feel competitive politics has led Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal to raise the demand for royalty on water. The SAD has always been in the forefront of the struggle to reverse the "injustices" meted out to the state. It launched an agitation in 1982 to stop construction of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal that was to take 1.62 maf (million acre-feet) water into Haryana. This agitation, which was converted into the Dharam Yudh morcha, eventually led to militancy in the state.

However the Akalis were stumped in 2004 by the Capt Amarinder Singh government, which terminated all previous water agreements. The unilateral action, which was unprecedented for a Congress chief minister, specially in the backdrop of an earlier CM withdrawing its case from the Supreme Court under pressure from the high command, won Amarinder huge support among the masses.

Now it seems it is the turn of the Akalis and they have played the royalty card, demanding money for use of Ravi and Beas river waters. The State Congress leadership, including Pradesh Congress President Mohinder Singh Kaypee and Legislature Party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, seem to have been caught on the wrong foot. Both leaders refused comment on the issue. Sources say the Punjab Congress is wary of upsetting the high command as well as its governments in Haryana and Rajasthan.Whether the move is politically motivated or not is debatable but chief minister P S Badal seems to have got the thumbs down from even his friend and Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) chief Om Prakash Chautala. The INLD leader claimed that Punjab had a habit of raking up issues to divert the attention of the people before elections. The SAD, under pressure from hardliners who allege it has done nothing to protect the interests of the state, faces elections to the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in seven months time. The assembly elections are one and a half years away.Punjab's claims have been rubbished by Haryana, which is not buying the theory that water is a natural resource like coal and can be mined. Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has in fact demanded that Punjab pay it royalty for the water not given to the state till now. The 1981 inter-state agreement had allocated 3.5 MAF water to Haryana. It is still to get 1.8 MAF due from the SYL.There's also the issue of who gets the royalty if at all it is to be given. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has jumped into the fray saying Himachal should have the first right as most of the rivers originate from the State.

Punjab's case largely rests on the shoulders of Pritam Singh Kumedan, a former sub divisional magistrate, who has advised successive governments on the river waters issue. Kumedan maintains the sovereign rights over water flowing into its limits rest with Punjab. The water expert says there are two specific instances of royalty being paid earlier. He says the princely states of Patiala, Jind and Nabha paid royalty to the British for water received from the Sirhind canal in 1873. He said similarly the Bikaner State paid royalty to the British for water supplied to it through an agreement in 1917.

Kumedan says clause five of the 1955 agreement clearly stated that the question of allocation of water could be taken up separately. He claims the issue of royalty got lost again after the 1981 agreement with the Akalis launching a 'morcha' over digging of the SYL canal. He estimates that water worth Rs 80,000 crore has flown into Rajasthan and that worth Rs 50,000 crore has flown into Haryana. These calculations are based on the cost incurred by farmers of Punjab in sourcing water from underground reservoirs. An indication of what the central view on the issue is has been given by Union Water Resources minister Pawan Kumar Bansal who says there is no provision under the Indian law to price river water and that Punjab's demand has no legal sanctity. Kumedan admits there is no example of any state paying for water after partition but he says this is simply because no state has given water to a non-riparian one like Punjab has. Another Punjabi - former bureaucrat and vice chancellor - Swarn Singh Boparai, who played a key role in the termination of the water agreements during Amarinder's tenure as chief minister, also stands by compensating Punjab for water flowing out of the state. He says Punjabis and Sikhs are treated as jingoists even though they have been most expansive in sharing their water with others. "The farmer in Punjab is drawing water from as low as 500 feet now and the state does not have any surplus water to give away". Boparai says in such a situation there is need to rework the national water policy and make it more "realistic".

Patiala, July 4
State BJP chief Ashwani Sharma said today that their party would firmly stand with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on the issue of demanding royalty on river waters being given to other states.

Reacting to a statement issued by former state Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh accusing CM Parkash Singh Badal of trying to gain political mileage by exploiting the issue before the elections, he said the state government had taken up the genuine issue and the BJP was with it.

He was in the city to inaugurate a blood donation camp organised to commemorate the martyrdom day of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee by the medical wing of the BJP at Surya Complex.

He alleged that: “The Congress has always been trying to misguide the people by imposing mistakes committed by its government on the SAD-BJP combine. We are committed to take the issue of royalty to its logical conclusion, which would expose double standards of the Congress.”

Meanwhile, he said that the nationwide bandh call for tomorrow would be successful because the masses had realised that price rise during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA government had increased manifold.

On a query regarding the 1984 riots, Sharma said: “It is unfortunate that the CBI is acting on the dictates of the Congress.”

Chandigarh, July 4
Former state Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who was behind the termination of all river waters agreements earlier, has again queered the pitch for the Punjab Congress by taking on Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who has demanded royalty on river waters flowing into other states from Punjab.

The state Congress, including Pradesh Congress president Mohinder Singh Kaypee as well as legislature party leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, has chosen to keep silent on the issue. It is wary of that saying anything against the demand would give an advantage to the SAD.

However, Amarinder, whose government had passed a Bill in the state Assembly in 2004 terminating all previous river waters agreements with Haryana and Rajasthan, has again taken the bull by the horns. Only this time he has spoken out against the concept of royalty being demanded by the SAD.

Amarinder feels that the issue will affect the future of waters of the state, as Himachal Pradesh from where the Beas and Ravi originated will also claim royalty on water being used by Punjab. He said similarly, the Sutlej originated in Tibet and if the demand for royalty was accepted in the country, China could also demand royalty on the Sutlej river waters from India.

He said it seemed as if the CM had not thought about the consequences of making such a statement keeping in view the larger interests of the state. The former CM also ridiculed Badal for “rushing” to Mumbai after he could not secure a meeting with the Prime Minister, whom he wanted to meet at the head of an all-party delegation.

He said the CM’s media adviser was claiming that Badal had gone to Mumbai to find lawyers to defend Punjab’s case in the Supreme Court when the fact was that the state’s team to defend the case had already been duly constituted.

Amarinder said the team included Fali Nariman, Harish Salve and Rajiv Dhawan. He said the standing counsel in the case was Rupinder Suri. Amarinder wondered what the CM was doing in Mumbai when all lawyers representing the state in the Supreme Court were based in Delhi.

“As the Supreme Court opens tomorrow, somebody on his staff should advise him accordingly to prevent him from the needless nation trotting visit to Bombay”, he added.

Chandigarh, July 4
PPCC President Mohinder Singh Kaypee today opposed the policy of the Parkash Singh Badal government to privatise education by handing over government schools to teachers appointed on contract basis. He said the state government could not run away from its basic responsibility of providing education and health facilities to the people in general and the poorer sections in particular.

In a statement issued here today, the PPCC chief said it was shocking that the students of the government school at Sidhana near Rampura Phul in Bathinda district staged a protest on the roof of the school against the decision of the state government to post contractual teachers by shifting the regular staff. He said the entire village had come out to secure the future of students and the panchayat had registered its protest by submitting its resignation to the Sub-Divisional Magistrate emphasising that privatisation of education would not be allowed.

Kaypee said the Badal government, which had failed on all fronts, was playing with the future of the students especially from the poor strata as the new system of contract teachers lacked accountability. This would result in a further fall in the quality of education.

He said the government also stood thoroughly exposed on the issue of providing basic health amenities to the people at large as dispensaries were without staff, equipment and medicines. He said the spread of diseases like cancer on such a scale called for an immediate programme of action, as the situation at the ground level was very serious with people being forced to drink contaminated water.

The PPCC General Secretary and the media in charge, Parminder Singh, said the state government should come out with an education and health package, as it was the responsibility of the government to provide these facilities in a welfare state. Parminder Singh demanded that multi-facility hospitals should be set up at the earliest in the Malwa belt to provide facilities to the cancer patients who have to go to Bikaner in Rajasthan for treatment. 

Patiala, July 4
The Save Indian Family Foundation (SIFF), an organisaton working to help families against the alleged misuse of pro-woman laws, opened its chapter here today.

The Patiala chapter of the organisation would be headed by Abhishek Kumar. Making an announcement in this regard at a press conference at Red Cross Bhawan, Abhishek said they would work to help families that had been allegedly implicated in false dowry cases and would make the affected families aware about the alleged misuse of pro-women laws every Sunday at Baradari Gardens.

“There is a provision in law, as per which taking and giving dowry is an offence. However, the police is quick to register an FIR against husbands and their families for seeking dowry, but not a single FIR has been registered against girls or their families for giving dowry,” said Vikas Kapur, coordinator of the Chandigarh chapter of the organisation.

Another representative of the SIFF Mandeep Puri said the World Health Organisation had identified misuse of Section 498-A of the IPC as a prominent reason behind elders’ abuse in India. “Rational and responsible citizens from all over the country and abroad have repeatedly warned that these laws in their present form are detrimental to family harmony, and left unchecked, these have enormous potential to shatter marital and family stability in the years to come,” he added.

Addressing mediapersons, Abhishek said there was no conviction in around 98 per cent of the cases filed under Section 498-A of the IPC, which indicated that the law was being misused.

Patiala, July 4
Maintaining that the Queen’s Baton was a reminiscent of the British rule in India, SAD leader and former Deputy Speaker of Punjab Vidhan Sabha Bir Devinder Singh has criticised the rousing reception being accorded to it in various parts of the country.

In a letter to AICC president Sonia Gandhi, Bir Devinder has said that welcoming the Baton, which reminded of the foreign rule, was a matter of shame. The letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, reads: “Since the Indian National Congress struggled hard to win freedom for the country, your kind indulgence in the matter as the incumbent president of the Congress would save the nation from the huge embarrassment being caused by the glorification of Queen’s Baton.”

Clarifying that he was not opposed to the holding of Commonwealth Games, the SAD leader said the countrymen must refresh their memories that the Commonwealth countries were once a part of what was known as the British Empire and were ruled by Britain as their colonies. “It is a part of history that the British plundered the wealth of the nations, which came under the spell of its rule and India tops the list of those who suffered the most. How would the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi feel like when perceiving the fruits of his wisdom being squandered in celebrating the vanities attached to the Queen’s Baton?”

Bir Devinder also pointed out that Queen’s Baton has “no meaning and value” for Indians. “I feel that the Prime Minister or the Sports Minister should put an immediate halt to the glorification of Queen’s Baton, so that it does not, even remotely, cause any sense of indignation, subjugation or obsequiousness for our sovereign nation displaying the pride of their hard-earned freedom and sovereignty,” the letter concludes.

Patiala, July 4
Representatives of the Pensioners Association of the Punjab State Cooperative Agricultural Development Bank Limited, Chandigarh, have rued the non-disbursal of pension by the bank management from the past three months.

According to association vice-president Roopjeet Kaushal, hundreds of pensioners are awaiting pension for the past three months, but the same has not been disbursed for the reasons best known to the bank management.

“Considerable number of employees who retired from the bank are suffering from chronic diseases and are not even getting their pension. Thus, they are facing extreme difficulties,” he added.

Kaushal said, “I am a diabetic and need money for medicines, but the bank authorities have not disbursed the pension. This problem is not new as earlier also disbursal of the pension has been delayed several times.” He said the association had sent many representations to the state government and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in that regard, but to no avail.

Kaushal further said the bank management had failed to give any satisfactory reply for not disbursing the pensions. He said they could not understand why pension was not being disbursed despite the bank being in profit. He alleged the bank management had also stopped reimbursement of medical bills of retired employees. 

Moga, July 4
Rajvir Kaur (24) had left her paternal home in Masitaan village a year ago with dreams of a lifelong companionship with Surinder Singh of Bamb Bundala village. But she became a victim of dowry within a year of her marriage.

She was first allegedly forced to abort a couple of months ago and then her husband and in-laws allegedly gave her some poisonous substance by mixing it in curd three days ago.

In his complaint to the police, Gyan Singh, the victim’s father, alleged that he had married off his daughter to Surinder Singh by fulfilling his parents’ demand of some money in cash and household items, but they kept on demanding money from him. Since he could not fulfill their demands, they started torturing his daughter and forced her for abortion a couple of months ago.

He alleged that three days ago, they gave some poisonous substance by mixing it in curd to Rajvir and called him that she was not feeling well. “I brought her along with me and started her treatment here, but unfortunately she died yesterday night,” Gyan Singh told The Tribune.

The post-mortem examination of the body was conducted at the district hospital here today. The viscera have been sent for a chemical examination to ascertain whether she was given some poisonous substance or not.

A criminal case under Sections 304-B and 120-B of the IPC had been registered against the deceased woman’s husband Surinder Singh, father-in-law Balwant Singh, mother-in-law Narinder Kaur and her sister-in-law. No arrest has been made so far.

Punian (Tarn Taran), July 4
A small land dispute in a Jat Sikh family culminated into a broad daylight murder when a 50-year-old farmer and his supporter were shot from a point-blank range by their relatives in this village today. All 11 accused in the case managed to escape apparently in the absence of a timely police action.

The families of deceased Swaran Singh (50) and accused Satnam Singh, both cousins, had some long-standing dispute over the line dividing their farms. The issue took a turn for the worse today when Swaran Singh suspected that the dividing line was disturbed by Satnam Singh and his farm hands leading to heated exchanges between the two sides.

The issue seemingly got resolved this morning through mutual understanding. Later in the evening, Swaran Singh headed for his farm, suspecting that the dividing line was again disturbed and merged in their farm by Swaran Singh and his supporters.

The arguments between Swaran Singh and Satnam Singh and his 11 supporters turned into allegations. As the discussion reached a flash point, Satnam Singh and his supporters, all of whom were allegedly armed with double-barrel guns and lethal weapons, opened fire killing Swaran Singh and injuring one of his supporters identified as Mukhtiar Singh. Mukhtiar Singh has been shifted to a hospital in Amritsar where his condition was said to be serious.

Interestingly, Satnam Singh and all other accused --- Dalip Singh, Bachitar Singh, Bakshish Singh, Satnam Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Harvinder Singh, Angrez Singh, Amarjit Singh, and Harpreet Singh ---managed to escape from the crime scene in the absence of a timely action on the part of the police.

SHO Nirmal Singh confirmed that the accused had given a slip to the police. They had, however, been booked under Sections 302,307 of the IPC and Sections 25, 54, 27 and 59 of the Arms Act.

Tension gripped the village immediately after the incident. “The dispute was there but we could never imagine that it would take a bloody turn,” said a resident, adding that the two parties were in favour of resolving the dispute amicably. Villagers said in the absence of proper demarcation in most of Punjab villages, land disputes and subsequent bloody brawls were frequent particularly in the Majha region.