Hardening its stand on the Satluj-Yamuna Link canal row in the wake of the Supreme Court directive, Punjab on Monday annulled all its water sharing agreements with Haryana and Rajasthan.
The state assembly unanimously passed a bill in this regard.
The Punjab Termination of Agreement Bill 2004, moved by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, was passed by the House after a discussion lasting over one-and-a-half hours at a specially convened one-day session.
The session was called in view of the apex court order asking the Centre to ensure early completion of the SYL canal
in Punjab.
The move comes two days ahead of the Supreme Court deadline for the Centre to hand over construction of the canal to the Central Public Works Department.
Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan had entered into an agreement on December 31, 1981 allocating 3.5 MAF (million
acre feet) of water to Haryana and 8.60 MAF to Rajasthan out of the surplus flow of Ravi and Beas rivers then estimated at 17.17 MAF based on 1921-1960 flow series. Punjab had got 5.07 MAF from the two rivers.
Singh said the terms of the 1981 agreement have "become onerous, unfair, unreasonable and contrary to the interests of
the inhabitants of Ravi-Beas basin, who have lawful rights to utilise the water of the two rivers. Even though Haryana and Rajasthan are neither riparian nor basin states, they have continued to utilise Ravi Beas waters."
