With a little push from SC, Khattar plans meeting, Mann agrees to sit and discuss

“The meeting will be held in Chandigarh on Friday (October 14). We will definitely try to find a way to resolve the issue,” Khattar told reporters here.

Last month, he had said water from the SYL was crucial for Haryana. “On one hand, we are not getting this water, while on the other, Delhi is demanding more water from us. Fixing a deadline to resolve this issue at the earliest has become very essential,” he had said.

Interacting with reporters at the sidelines of an event here, Mann, meanwhile, said his government would strongly plead the case of the state. He said Punjab’s interests would be fully safeguarded in the meeting. “We will go into the meeting with full homework…We will keep Punjab’s side on SYL. Whatever is decided in that meeting we will let you all know,” Mann told reporters here.

He further said that unlike his predecessors “who usually evaded such important meetings”, he would go fully prepared.

Replying to a question, Mann said it was too early to derive any conclusion on the outcome of the meeting.

Water sharing from the SYL canal has been a bone of contention between the two states for several decades. Punjab has been demanding a reassessment of the water volume in Ravi and Beas rivers, while Haryana wants completion of the canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre-feet of water from the two rivers for irrigation.

Haryana has been citing its contribution to the central food pool and arguing that it is being denied its rightful share in the water.

A government functionary in Punjab, privy to the development, said that they were preparing a case to be taken up with Haryana CM. The official, however said, Punjab would stick to its old stand that it was a riparian state and also that it was facing desertification and had no water to share.

“We have been seeking a tribunal to assess the available water with the state. Also, we have been maintaining that if Haryana has to get water from Ravi and Beas, then Punjab should also get water from Yamuna. More discussions are on as it is still two days to go for the meeting,” the functionary said.

Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal issued a stern warning to Chief Minister Mann “against reducing Punjab’s river waters to a negotiable issue between Punjab and Haryana”.

In a statement, the SAD chief said it was shocking that Mann had not made the state government’s stand clear before holding a meeting with his Haryana counterpart on this issue. Badal said Punjab had an exclusive right over its river waters and Haryana being a non-riparian state had no locus standi in the matter.

“There is nothing to discuss here with Haryana,” Badal added.

The riparian principle states that the owner of land adjacent to a waterbody has the right to use the water.

The Centre had on September 6 informed the Supreme Court that the Punjab government was “not cooperating” in resolving the dispute. The then Attorney General K K Venugopal, appearing for the Centre, had told the bench that the apex court had in 2017 called for an amicable settlement and that it was trying to bring the two states on the same page through its Water Resources Ministry.

“Unfortunately, Punjab has not been cooperating,” the top law officer had said.

“Water is a natural resource and living beings must learn to share it, whether it be individuals, States or countries… I know there are sensitive issues in the state (Punjab), but some calls have to be taken. In the larger interest of the country, you have to sit down and work it out. It cannot be left as a festering wound. Water is a natural wealth to be shared. How it has to be shared is a mechanism to be worked out. We expect parties to work out a way to share the national wealth,” a three-judge bench, headed by Justice S K Kaul, had told told Punjab and Haryana.

The counsel for Punjab told the bench that the state government was very keen to resolve the issue amicably.

The Supreme Court listed the case for further hearing on January 18, 2023.