Chandigarh: Gajendra Singh Shekhawat holds meeting with Punjab, Haryana CMs

Chandigarh : A meeting to discuss the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, is being held by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat with chief ministers of Haryana and Punjab here. The meeting, which is taking place at a five-star hotel here, began here Friday late afternoon. Senior officials from the two states are also taking part in the meeting, which is the third one between the two chief ministers during the past over a year on the SYL issue and the second one during the current year being presided over by Shekhawat in which both CMs are present. According to a Haryana government statement on Wednesday, Shekhawat is holding the meeting to address the long-standing SYL issue.

Ahead of the meeting, a few farmers’ outfits from Punjab held a protest in Mohali against the meeting, saying Punjab does not have any surplus water to share with anyone. Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal), Kisan Sangharsh Committee (Punjab), and BKU (Mansa) were among the outfits taking part in the protest. BKU (Rajewal) chief Balbir Singh Rajewal said Punjab does not have any surplus water to share with anyone.

Another farmer leader said, “We are protesting as Punjab does not have any surplus water, why SYL should be constructed and therefore, what is the purpose of such meetings which are being held.” Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had recently written a letter to his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann and had expressed readiness to hold a meeting to resolve any obstacles or issues related to the SYL canal’s construction.

Mann too had earlier this month said that he would attend the meeting, but asserted that the state has no spare water to share with any other state. The SYL canal issue has been a bone of contention between the two states for the past several years. The canal was conceptualised for the effective sharing of water between the two states from the Ravi and Beas rivers.

The project envisages a 214-kilometre canal, of which a 122-kilometre stretch was to be constructed in Punjab and the remaining 92 kilometres in Haryana. Haryana has completed the project in its territory but Punjab, which launched the work in 1982, shelved it. Haryana was carved out of Punjab on November 1, 1966. The Haryana government wants the implementation of the Supreme Court verdict on the construction of the SYL canal. The apex court had on October 4 asked the Centre to survey the portion of land in Punjab that the state was allocated for the construction of part of the SYL canal and make an estimate of the extent of construction carried out there. All political parties in Punjab had earlier asserted that the state does not have a single drop of additional water to share with any other state, though political outfits in Haryana had welcomed the apex court directions.