SYL Row: Haryana BJP Lawmakers Meet Punjab Governor To Oppose Land Denotification

Amid an escalating water row between Punjab and Haryana, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators from Haryana on Wednesday (16 November) met Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore to seek blocking of a move by the Punjab government to de-notify land acquired nearly four decades ago for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

The Punjab cabinet yesterday (15 November) de-notified nearly 5,000 acres of land acquired for construction of the SYL canal nearly four decades ago.

The Haryana BJP legislators were led by state BJP president Subhash Barala. They pointed out that the Punjab government's move was in contempt of the Supreme Court verdict in the matter.

Haryana claims that it’s a water-deficit state and that it has been deprived of more than half of its share of surplus water from Ravi-Beas rivers. This has hit the state’s agricultural production.

The Supreme Court had earlier accepted Haryana’s petition for early hearing on the issue of the SYL canal, on which the Presidential Reference is pending for the past 11 years. The Supreme Court verdict has given a clear opinion to the President in favour of Haryana.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has categorically said that his government will not accept the recent Supreme Court verdict which said termination of water agreements done unilaterally by Punjab in 2004 through a bill passed by the state assembly was illegal.

The Congress government in Punjab had, in 2004, scrapped the water sharing agreements with neighbouring states and refused to give any water to other states, especially Haryana.

With inputs from IANS