Haryana Seeks Ysl Completion By Sept

The Haryana assembly on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to ensure the completion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal within six months.

The resolution, moved by Chief Minister Bansi Lal and supported by leader of the opposition belonging to the Samajwadi Janata Party Om Parkash Chautala and Bhajan Lal of the Congress, also asked the Centre to entrust the completion work of the SYL canal to some Central agency.

The resolution, described the canal as the lifeline of Haryana and regretted that the construction work on the project, which stopped in 1990 in the wake of the killings of three dozen migrant workers and later two senior engineers by the Punjab terrorists, had not been resumed. The resolution further mentioned that the delay in the completion of the SYL canal project had resulted in incalculable national loss as well as direct loss to the people of Haryana.

 

The Centre has already spent Rs 700 crore on the project. While the work on the 90-km portion of the canal in Haryana was completed more than a decade ago, more than 90 per cent construction work on the 110-km portion of the canal in Punjab had also been completed till 1990. But, work had been at a stand-still since then.

The Akali Dal, which has now come back to power in Punjab, have been opposed to the construction of the canal. While passing the resolution, the House stressed that since river waters are a national asset, Haryana has equal right over it.

The waters of Ravi and Beas rivers, being a successor state of erstwhile state of Punjab.

The resolution pointed out that the riparian principle regarding the distribution of river waters, which Punjab has been pressing upon, has no relevance in the present context.

The resolution said that the use of river waters, being national assets, cannot be restricted to the boundaries of any particular state.

It said that river waters must be distributed in an equitable manner among the basin states.

The resolution also urged the Centre to implement the Shah Commission award of 1966 on sharing of territory among Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh and transfer Chandigarh and other Hindi-speaking areas to Haryana.

It reiterated that the Punjab Boundary Commission headed by Justice J C Shah, in its award of May 31, 1996, had given the verdict that Chandigarh should be transferred to Haryana.

The resolution took strong exception to the Governors address during the current budget session of the Punjab assembly demanding that Chandigarh and other Punjabi-speaking areas should be transferred to Punjab.