 "Punjab, Haryana chief ministers to discuss Sutlej-Yamuna link issue on 14 October")
New Delhi: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will meet to discuss the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue on 14 October.
The discussion between the two chief ministers has been scheduled after the Supreme Court had recently nudged them to meet and try to find an amicable solution.
“We will try to find a way to resolve the issue”, Khattar told reporters on Tuesday.
Last month, he had said water from the SYL was crucial for Haryana.
“On the 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.
In Punjab, opposition parties had recently asked Mann to stand up for the state’s cause over the issue.
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 Ravi-Beas river waters’ volume while Haryana has been seeking completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre-feet of the river waters.
The Centre had on 6 September informed the Supreme Court that the Punjab government was “not cooperating” in resolving the dispute.
Then-Attorney General KK 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.
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More Shorts“Unfortunately, Punjab has not been cooperating,” the top law officer had said.
However, the counsel for Punjab had last month told a bench headed by Justice SK Kaul that the state government was very keen to resolve the issue amicably.
Though official-level talks between the two states are on, the Centre has been insisting on meetings between the two chief ministers.
Venugopal had said the bench may direct the Punjab counsel to ensure that the chief minister participates in the discussions with his Haryana counterpart.
“Attorney General rightly points out that chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana were and are required to meet and it is agreed before us by the counsel present that such a meeting will be held within this month itself,” the bench had said.
After Haryana and Punjab were separated in 1966, Haryana was allotted 3.5 million-acre-feet (MAF) of water from undivided Punjab’s 7.2 MAF of water from the 15.85 MAF flowing into the Ravi and Beas Rivers, as assessed in 1955.
In 1982 a 214-km canal, 122 km in Punjab and 92 in Haryana, called the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal, was launched to provide Haryana with its quota of 3.5 million-acre-feet water from the Ravi and Beas rivers. However, Punjab claimed all the water based on riparian law, which states the water of a river first belongs to the state through which it flows. The issue has been rather sensitive in the state and has triggered violence in the 80s and 90s. With inputs from PTI. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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