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The
Sutlej-Yamuna Linkage (SYL) Canal issue has been a major
political issue in Punjab and Haryana for the past two
decades.
On January
29, 1955 ,Rajasthan was given 8m.a.f of water from Punjab
rivers.On March 29,1976, 3.5 m.a.f. of water was given to
Harayana and 0.2 m.a.af. of water to Delhi. Again on
December 31,1981 water was reallocated among Punjab,
Harayana and Rajasthan and later laid the Foundation Stone
of the SYL Canal in April next year
The SYL
canal project was started and the canal was supposed to
carry the waters from rivers Ravi and Beas flowing in
Punjab to Haryana as per an agreement reached between the
two states and the Central Government led by Indira
Gandhi.
Punjab has
always opposed the construction of the canal on the plea
that the state has the sole right over its river waters by
applying the riparian principle. The construction work on
the canal was stopped after militants gunned down two
senior engineers connected with the project in 1990. By
then only a few kilometers of the total 121 km of the
canal portion on the Punjab side had been constructed.
An estimated
Rs 762 crore has been spent by the State and the Central
governments on the SYL in the Punjab portion alone. Over
1,800 employees assigned to work on the project have been
on a paid holiday since 1990 costing the state exchequer
Rs 25 crore annually against salaries.
Haryana has
already constructed the entire 90 km stretch of the canal
in anticipation of getting river waters from Punjab. It
was on the writ petition filed by the Haryana Government
that the Supreme Court ruled in January 2002 that the
Punjab Government should get the canal completed and if it
failed the Centre should pitch in to take up the
construction work through its agency.
While
the Punjab Government dithered over the issue for the past
two years, the apex court through a hard-hitting order
last week asked the Centre to complete the construction
work on the canal.
The Court,
while rejecting the Punjab Government's plea for review of
its January 15, 2002 directive to complete the SYL canal
within a year, asked the Centre to take up the
construction work in Punjab portion of the Canal.
(Source: DECCAN HERALD, Friday, June
11,2004;Tribune Chandigarh, June14 , 2004: Economic times,
June 11,2004.)
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