Chandigarh, Oct 27 The Punjab Assembly on Tuesday passed five resolutions related to river water rights, including seeking a share in the Yamuna river, repeal of the Dam Safety Act, and demanding royalty from Rajasthan for water.
Participating in the debate on the resolutions on the concluding day of the Punjab Assembly Session, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asserted that not a single drop of Punjab’s rightful share would be surrendered.
He vowed to fight from courts to streets and questioned Rajasthan’s continued access to Punjab’s water without payment, pegged the state’s outstanding royalty claim at Rs 1.43 lakh crore, and asserted that Rajasthan and Haryana had no share in the waters of the Ravi and Beas.
He pointed out his government is strengthening the state’s own irrigation network, expanding canal water access from 22 per cent to 80 per cent of fields in four years and laying 14,000 km of underground pipelines.
Water Resources Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal moved five resolutions on the concluding day, which is the last session of the Mann government before the 2027 assembly polls.
The resolutions were passed in the absence of the Congress, SAD and BJP legislators. However, rebel Akali MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali and BSP MLA Nachattar Pal were in the House.
The first resolution asserted Punjab’s historical and legal claim over the waters of the Yamuna River.
“River Yamuna, like Ravi and Beas, flowed through the erstwhile State of Punjab before the reorganisation of the State in the year 1966. While Ravi and Beas waters were considered during reorganisation of the State of Punjab but the Yamuna waters were not considered,” it said.
Punjab, being a successor state of the erstwhile Punjab, is entitled to its legitimate rights and share out of Yamuna waters, it noted.
The resolution said the Punjab government must pursue the matter and request the Ministry of Jal Shakti to include Punjab as beneficiary of Yamuna waters, out of the share presently given to Haryana.
Mann said Punjab would no longer tolerate injustice in the distribution of its precious water resources.
“Water is a state subject, and the control of headworks rests with the states. Punjab will vigorously pursue its legitimate rights and will not allow the state’s interests to be sacrificed,” he said.
Questioning Haryana’s claim over Ravi-Beas waters, Mann said, “It is unfair that Haryana stakes its claim over Ravi-Beas waters while Punjab’s rightful share in Yamuna waters is ignored, despite the Yamuna being part of undivided Punjab.”
By laying 14,000 kilometres of pipelines and rejuvenating canals and watercourses, his government strengthened the irrigation system and improved access to water for farmers, he said.
The chief minister said the government revived the Kandi Canal after nearly four decades and operationalised eight new canals in Pathankot, Amritsar, and Gurdaspur.
“These initiatives have significantly improved irrigation access, with 60.80 lakh acres of land being irrigated through the government’s efforts. Our commitment is to ensure that every drop counts, strengthen agriculture and provide much-needed relief to farmers,” he said.
Punjab’s interests suffered for decades and the state received royalty on its river waters until 1960, after which the payments stopped completely, Mann said.
“Punjab has a legitimate claim to Rs 1.44 lakh crore in royalties for its river waters. Rajasthan continues to receive water from Punjab free of cost and uses it for economic benefit. The people of Punjab, particularly our farmers, have made immense sacrifices to feed the nation. They cannot be expected to accept discrimination when it comes to their own natural resources,” he said.
The second resolution was about seeking transfer of administrative control of irrigation headworks at Ropar, Harike and Ferozepur to the Punjab government, as it challenged Section 79(1)(c) of the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, under which control of these headworks was assigned to the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB).
It argued that it is prevailing practice across India that headworks or barrages located within the territorial jurisdiction of a state are owned, operated and managed by that state, even where they supply water to other states.
The headworks mentioned were Hathnikund Barrage (Haryana), Kota Barrage (Rajasthan), Okhla Barrage (Delhi), Naryanpur Barrage (Karnataka), Hirakud Dam (Odisha), and Galutih Barrage (Jharkhand), and Lower Sileru Headwork (Andhra Pradesh).
The third resolution was about the Dam Safety Act, 2021, which the government considered an attack on the rights of Punjab.
“This law fully empowers the central government to directly control the rivers and dams of the states, even if the dam is entirely within the state’s borders. This is against India’s federal structure and directly undermines the sovereign right of states like Punjab over their water,” the resolution read.
“Therefore, this House demands from the central government that the Dam Safety Act, 2021, be repealed immediately and the Government of Punjab rejects the Act completely,” it said.
The fourth resolution sought royalty from Rajasthan for water supply from the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers.
Rajasthan uses these waters for irrigation, drinking water supply, industries including refineries, and other commercial purposes, and recovers water charges and earns revenue from them. The resolution found it neither just nor equitable that Rajasthan should receive these waters from Punjab free of cost.
“The government of Rajasthan be called upon to acknowledge its liability to pay Punjab for the river waters supplied to it, and to pay the amount demanded by the state government,” it said.
The fifth resolution pointed out that water that crosses into Pakistan into the Ravi is the water of the Ujh, Tarnah, Basantar and other streams, which originate in Jammu and Kashmir and join the Ravi downstream of Madhopur Headworks.
There is no structure to store or divert this water before it crosses the border, and owing to the flat terrain and the International Border, no storage can be built in Punjab in this reach, it said.
The resolution sought that the government of India execute the Ujh Multipurpose Project on priority to divert Ravi’s waters to the Ranjit Sagar Dam, so that these waters are stored and used in full within Punjab.
The Central Water Commission will be requested to approve the second Ravi-Beas Link Project at the earliest, so that the water flowing across the border below the Ujh can be diverted to the areas of Punjab, it said.
(PTI News)
