Experts rap Centre’s draft water policy

Speaking at the seminar,which had been jointly organised by the Bharati Kisan Union (Siddhupur) and the Internationalist Democratic Party (IDP) at Kisan Bhawan,former Punjab Irrigation Chief Engineer G.S Dhillon said water is being drawn for irrigation in Punjab from the ground through 14 lakh tube wells sunk by the farmers themselves. But the proposed water policy will impose an official control on the use of ground water and installing of the new tube wells will be allowed only after official permission is given.

Another expert,Pritam Singh Kumedaan,a former Punjab bureaucrat,said the centre had already robbed Punjab of its river water through fraudulent agreements and official dictates and the new proposed policy would further erode Punjab’s control on river waters which had already been diluted through the Water Dispute Amendment Act of 2002.

A majority of the speakers favored the rejection of the draft water policy outright and Prof Manjit Singh suggested the formation of a People’s Water Commission to document the snatching of water resources from the states by the Centre.

Rounding off the discussion,BKU President Pishaura Singh Sidhupur regretted that the political leadership of Punjab had failed to protect the state’s water resources from being plundered by the Centre and its adjoining states.

All India Kisan Sabha leader Bhupinder Singh Sanmber,senior journalist Jaspal Singh Sidhu,Omender Dutt of Kheti Virasat Mission and Sukhdarshan Nutt also spoke at the seminar.