Punjab readies water bill, Haryana stops bus service

ALL 42 PUNJAB CONG MLAs RESIGN FROM THE ASSEMBLY. BADAL GOVT ASKS THE PRESIDENT TO IGNORE SC’S STANCE ON THE STATE’S WATER LAW

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government is likely to bring a new bill on the inter-state water dispute in a move that could complicate the legal tussle with Haryana over sharing of water from the Beas and Sutlej rivers, official sources said on Friday.

The SAD-BJP government led by Parkash Singh Badal asked President Pranab Mukherjee to ignore the Supreme Court’s terming as “unconstitutional” a 2004 state law that scrapped all water-sharing arrangements between Punjab and its neighbouring states, including Haryana.

The dispute is likely to become a major issue with the opposition Congress turning the heat on the Badal government ahead of next year’s assembly polls.

On Friday, all 42 Congress legislators resigned from the assembly, a day after the party’s state president Amarinder Singh quit as a Lok Sabha MP to protest the court ruling.

Singh’s government had enacted Punjab’s Termination of Agreements Act to stop work on the 212-km-long Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal. Haryana, which is banking on the canal to bring water from the rivers to the state’s “dry and arid areas”, had moved the top court opposing the law.

Punjab government sources said the fresh bill was likely to be introduced at a special session of the assembly, convened on November 16 to discuss the verdict.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Kejri mum on canal row >>P9

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