CM Manohar Lal.
CM Manohar Lal.
Haryana: Satluj-Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) is the right of Haryana and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal is taking all possible steps for it. After strongly supporting the case in the Supreme Court, the Chief Minister has now written a letter to his counterpart Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, making it clear that he will take steps to resolve any hurdles or issues that come to the construction of the Supreme Court Standing in the way of the Court of Justice is SYL Canal. Ready to meet him. On October 4, the Supreme Court issued a detailed order on SYL. In it, the Supreme Court clearly stated that the execution was not related to the allocation of water.
He said that every citizen of Haryana is eagerly waiting for the early completion of the construction of SYL Canal in the Punjab part as per the order of Original Case No. 6 of 1996. Moreover, he is always ready to do whatever it takes to realize this long-awaited dream of his people and our arid land of South Haryana. He expressed hope that the Punjab government would definitely extend its cooperation in resolving this matter. In fact, the Punjab Chief Minister had written a letter to Chief Minister Manohar Lal on October 3, a day before the Supreme Court’s decision on October 4, seeking time for a bilateral meeting on the issue. Previously, the last bilateral meeting between the two took place on October 14, 2022. Subsequently, the Union Minister Jal Shakti held the second round of discussions on January 4, which was attended by the chief ministers of both states. It is pertinent to note here that all the meetings held at SYL canal remained inconclusive due to the negative attitude of the Punjab government.
It is known that despite two Supreme Court decisions, Punjab has not completed the construction work of SYL. Instead of implementing the Supreme Court’s decisions, Punjab tried to create obstacles in their implementation by passing the Agreements Annulment Act in 2004. As per the provisions of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, Haryana was allotted 3.5 MAF water from the surplus water of Ravi-Beas as per the order of the Government of India dated 24.3.1976. Since the construction work on the SYL canal is not yet completed, Haryana only consumes water at 1.62 MAF. By not completing the construction work of the SYL canal in its territory, Punjab is illegally consuming about 1.9 MAF of Haryana’s water. Due to this attitude of Punjab, Haryana is unable to fulfill its share of 1.88 MAF. Can’t drink water.
Due to the unavailability of this water, the groundwater level in South Haryana is also decreasing significantly. With SYL not being built, Haryana’s farmers are irrigating with expensive diesel and running tubewells with electricity, bearing an additional burden of Rs 100-150 million every year. Due to non-construction of SYL in the Punjab region, Haryana is not getting its share of water, leaving the irrigation potential created to irrigate 10 lakh acres of land untapped. Haryana also suffers losses of 42,000 tonnes of foodgrains every year. If SYL had been established in 1983 as per the 1981 agreement, Haryana would have produced 130 lakh tonnes of additional foodgrains and other grains. At a price of Rs 15,000 per tonne, the total value of these agricultural produce is Rs 19,500 crore.
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