No water to spare, says Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jhakar as SYL issue gathers steam

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 28

Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said on Tuesday that the state must first look out for the interests of its own people—a statement that comes after the Supreme Court’s hearing of the water-sharing battle between Punjab and Haryana over the controversial Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal pushed it back into the limelight.

In its hearing on Tuesday, the Supreme Court asked the two states to negotiate a solution for the issue that has defied several round of negotiations in the past three decades.

Jakhar, who was reacting to Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party unit president OP Dhankar’s statement on the Supreme Court’s latest directions in the SYL case, said political will could not supersede the interest of Punjab’s people. “The Congress government led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had never shirked its humanitarian responsibility but the acute water crisis faced by the state prevented it from sharing its water resources with any other state,” he said.

On Dhankar’s remarks that Punjab owed it to Haryana’s farmers to give them their due, the Punjab Congress president said as per the riparian principle, it was Punjab and its farmers who had the first right to the waters of the rivers flowing through the state. “Any violation of the riparian principle would not only be against the law but also unjust to Punjab’s people,” he said.

Pointing out that Captain Amarinder had been repeatedly asking for a fresh assessment of Punjab’s water availability in Beas and Ravi rivers, Jakhar said such a reassessment would make the ground situation clear and would endorse Punjab’s stand on the SYL issue.

“While the Punjab government had no objections to a negotiated settlement on the issue, as directed by the apex court, any discussion would have to take into account the situation on the ground,” he said.