Punjab farmer unions not keen on raising SYL issue

JOINT FORUM OF PUNJAB FARMERS DECIDED NOT TO RAISE THIS ISSUE, SAYING THIS IS THE TIME TO FIGHT TOGETHER FOR THEIR RIGHTS

BATHINDA: Farmer unions from Punjab may be fighting shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts from other states for farmers’ rights and to repeal the three recent farm laws, but they are not willing to touch the contentious issue of sharing river water from the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Haryana and Punjab have been at loggerheads over the sharing of the waters of RaviBeas for decades. Haryana wants its share, as was decided when the state was carved out of Punjab along with Himachal Pradesh over 50 years ago. Successive Punjab governments have refused to share water.

For decades, Haryana has been wanting a fair share of the natural resource to strengthen irrigation system for its arid southern districts of Mahendragarh, Rewari and Narnaul. These areas area also facing water shortage.

Union leaders from Punjab are unanimous that this is not on their agenda. President of the ultra-left Ugrahan faction of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), considered as the most active in Punjab with a strong base in Malwa, Joginder Singh said farmer rights groups had united to save rural economy.

“The agrarian community of Haryana has supported Punjab’s initiative against the Central farm laws. Farmers of both states are united and will force the Centre to withdraw these draconian laws. It is meaningless to discuss river water sharing during this agitation,” said Ugrahan.

On March 24, 1976, the Centre issued a notification promising Haryana 3.5 million acrefeet water from the SYL.

Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on April 8, 1982, inaugurated the construction of the SYL at Patiala’s Kapoori. The Rajiv-Longowal agreement followed on July 24, 1985, and Punjab had, in principal, given its consent for the construction of the canal. However, Haryana moved the Supreme Court in 1996 as the agreement did not materialise. On January 15, 2002, the SC directed Punjab to construct the SYL canal within a year. In 2004, Punjab passed the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, to cancel all water agreements.

In October 2015, Haryana requested the SC to form a constitutional bench, which on November 26, 2016, gave its ruling in favour of Haryana. The issue, however, is still a bone of contention. Farmer union leaders camping in Delhi claimed that the SYL was too emotive, and a politically sensitive subject to handle when a large number of farmers were on the streets.