Warning that water deprivation could lead to serious consequences, even revival of terrorism in the state, the Punjab Congress has appealed to the President of India to take into consideration the ground realities before taking any decision on the SYL issue.The appeal comes a day before Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and an all-party Haryana delegation led by the state chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar are scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherkjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on the SYL issue.A Punjab Congress delegation led by party president Captain Amarinder Singh had met the President on November 17, within days of the Supreme Court verdict on SYL. In a memorandum, the party had urged the President to direct the central government not to act on the apex court’s advice on the issue, warning of serious consequences otherwise.In a statement issued here on Sunday, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) leaders Sunil Jakhar, Manpreet Badal and Darshan S Brar warned that water deprivation could even trigger mass-scale violence or lead to the return of terrorism in the state. They urged the President to take into account the ground realities on water availability in Punjab before taking any further action in the matter.
The PPCC leaders expressed serious concern over the situation, arising out of the SYL verdict, in Punjab, where the Badal government is inflaming passions with its irresponsible acts and provocative statements. The situation, they said, warranted a close look at the realities prevailing on the ground, and necessitated a fresh tribunal to assess the water situation in the state.The PPCC leaders further called upon the President to direct the Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre to follow the internationally accepted riparian and basin principles on sharing of inter-state waters. Given the progressively declining river and ground water availability in Punjab, it is imperative to take all relevant factors, notably the quantum of water available with the state, into consideration before proceeding with any concrete action on the issue. Since neither Haryana nor Rajasthan are riparian states, they cannot automatically stake a claim to the water from Sutlet or Beas rivers, they asserted.
The fact of the matter, they said, is that Punjab does not have surplus water to share with other states, with Beas river water having come down from an estimated 14.37 MAF in 2002 to 13 MAF at present, with melting glaciers in the higher reaches of the Himalayas continuously eroding the water supply levels. The perpetually increasing demand for water in Punjab continues to be unmet by its current supply, with the situation highly explosive and the state ready to erupt into violence if the water crisis is allowed to aggravate, the PPCC leaders further warned.They pointed out that if diversion of Ravi-Beas water was allowed, completely ignoring the present Constitutional provisions, nearly one million acres of land would be rendered dry and barren and over 200,000 farmers and equal number of land less labour would lose their livelihood.The ball was now in the President’s court, said the Punjab Congress leaders, urging him to take cognizance of the severe water problems faced by the people of Punjab while taking a final decision in the matter.