Punjab Government Lawsuit Regarding Water Issues

Punjab Government files suit in Indian Supreme Court to protect Punjab’s river water resource by challenging sections 78 & 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act 1966

People of Punjab ought to learn from Haryana and tap into canals carrying free Punjab water to Haryana to replenish the dwindling under ground water

Media reports from the Sikh Homeland (Indian occupied Punjab) bear the good tidings that the Badal government there has finally decided to take up the gauntlet on the river water issue in the Indian Supreme Court.

The Punjab government has, according to the Tribune newspaper, filed a suit, in the Indian Supreme Court,  challenging the legality of Sections 78 and 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 (passed by the Indian  parliament) under which the erstwhile Bhakra Management Board (BMB) was established, on October 01,  1967, by the then rulers in Delhi, to supervise, among other things, the transfer of water-short Punjab’s river  waters, from the Bhakra Nangal dam, to non-riparian states of Rajasthan and Haryana. (See the Tribune newspaper  of Aug. 20, 2007, headlined, “Water Sharing; Punjab contests Reorganization Act provisions in Supreme Court”  by clicking at:  http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070820/nation.htm#1 ) This legal action is very close to  something the Captain Amrinder Singh government of Punjab was also talking about doing, in February 2006, but  for some reason did not follow through and ended up taking no legal action at all.

(See Tribune dated 12 Feb.  2006, about the Amrinder Singh government plans at http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060212/main4.htm ) For a deeper background please read Khalistan  Calling, dated February 15, 2006, headlined, “Punjab government to challenge Punjab Reorganization  Act-1966; Well done & God speed” at: http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/2006/february15.aspx )

The above Tribune report, dated 20 August 2007, that the Badal government has filed papers in the Supreme Court, is very good news for Punjab, if the Punjab government tenaciously follows through with this patriotic  legal action. Such legal action will indeed protect Punjab’s water resource for its people, their children and their  children’s children, if the Indian Supreme Court in turn shows integrity, a la the Pakistan Supreme Court, and  gives a just and fair verdict. There is no doubt that this legal action, by the Badal government, has the full support  (and admiration) of not only the three million strong prosperous Sikh diaspora and twenty two million Sikhs,  captive in India, but also millions of other Punjabis who are also very much effected. It is hoped that the Badal  government too, like the Amrinder Singh government, in February 2006, is planning to legally seek complete  control over the administration, maintenance and operation of Bhakra-Nangal and Beas projects, which are at  present looked after by the so-called Bhakra Beas Management Board – BBMB – an illegal body. This BBMB  (Bhakra Beas Management Board) was set up, illegally, on May 15, 1976 as a successor organization to the original Bhakra Management Board (BMB) which was established on October 01, 1967. The erstwhile Bhakra

Management Board came into being under section 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 for the administration, maintenance and operation of Bhakra Nangal Project w.e.f. 1st October 1967. The current illegitimate Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) was established, (it is now being claimed on its website, under Section 80 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966) w.e.f 15 May 1976. ( http://bhakra.nic.in/english/menu1.asp )

The above mentioned illegitimate Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) currently headed by a full  time Chairman, (Engineer U. C. Mishra) with two full time deputies, (Messrs Anil Arora – irrigation - and N. K.  Arora – power) has over 15, 000 employees on the payroll (very few of them Sikh as most of the Sikh employees  have been weeded out over time) is headquartered in Chandigarh - Sector 19-B, Madhya Marg, Chandigrah  160019; Tel: No: 91-0172-775369, Fax: No. 91-0172-549857. The Bhakra Dam Chief Engineer Er. B. B. Bedi,  Chief Engineer Beas Dam Er. N. K. Jasrai & Chief Engineer Beas Satluj Link Er. R. R. Dudeja; all work under  Deputy Chairman Irrigation, Er. Anil Arora. Incidentally, Punjab is represented on the Bhakra Beas Management  Board by Sh. Suresh Kumar, IAS, Secretary to Govt. of Punjab,

Irrigation & Power Deptt. Chandigarh, and is reported to be not very bright and a ‘praimi’ of the Sirsa Baba.

In the 1966 reorganization of the erstwhile state of (East) Punjab, Bhakra Management Board (BMB) was  constituted, under section 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 for the administration, maintenance and operation of Bhakra Nangal Project w.e.f. 1st October 1967. According to the BBMB website( http://bhakra.nic.in/english/menu1.asp ) the Beas Project Works, on completion, were transferred by Government of India from Beas Construction Board (BCB) to Bhakra Management Board as per Section 80 of  the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966 and the Bhakra Management Board was arbitrarily renamed as Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) w.e.f. 15th May 1976.

According to the Tribune ( http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070820/nation.htm#1 ) newspaper report,  ‘the Punjab government has moved the Supreme Court challenging the validity of two vital provisions (sections  78 & 79) of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, (shouldn’t the Punjab government challenge three – sections 78, 79 and 80 -of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966?) which paved the way for the creation of non-riparian Haryana and transfer of four hill districts of united Punjab to Himachal Pradesh.’ In the suit filed by the Badal government in the Indian Supreme Court, (article 131 of the Indian Constitution gives the Supreme Court the power to adjudicate upon any inter-state disputes) Punjab has sought to, ‘strike down Sections 78 and 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, dealing exclusively with the sharing of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej waters with Haryana and Rajasthan.’ The suit claims that these provisions are not only unconstitutional but contrary to the previous accords on water sharing, dating back from the Independence of India Act, 1947 by way of which India’s right on these three rivers have been recognized. Punjab has named the central government, Haryana, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh as respondents in its suit.

The state government, in its application before the Supreme Court, moved by Punjab’s special standing counsel, Rupinder Singh Suri, has sought, ‘to restore its right on the waters of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers as riparian state to the level of pre-Reorganization Act stage, and has requested the Supreme Court to restrain officials of the centre and other respondent states from acting in accordance with the mandate of Sections 78 and 79 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966 or any other follow-up agreements. The provision of Section 79, considered vital on distribution of water, gives total control over Bhakra waters to the centre through the Bhakra Beas Management Board, a central agency created exclusively for this purpose.’ Punjab has challenged the Central government’s control over it, saying it has curtailed Punjab’s right over the water of its rivers, as a riparian state, and as existed prior to the Reorganization Act, 1966 as well as power generated from Bhakra, which was built by an agreement signed by Punjab, Rajasthan and the centre in 1959.

Punjab has also claimed, in its suit, that its right on the Ravi and Beas waters, established at 7.2 MAF under the 1955 agreement (among centre, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Pepsu, which merged in Punjab and the 1959 agreement on Bhakra waters) has been reduced to 4.22 MAF under the subsequent accords by way of which Haryana has been given more than its share. The suit states that, ‘even though Haryana is not a riparian state, it has been given 3.5 MAF share of their (Ravi & Beas) waters (under the 1976 agreement, a follow-up of the Reorganization Act 1966) out of the total discharge of 7.2 MAF of the two rivers waters. As a consequence Punjab’s share of these waters has been reduced to 4.22 MAF. According to engineers, there has  also been a reduction of water level in the Punjab rivers from 17.17 MAF level to 15.85 MAF in the past two decades.’As a consequence of the loss of Beas river and the Ravi-Beas Link canal, (which siphons Ravi river’s water at Madhopur and carries it to the Pong Dam, astride the Beas river, in Himachel Pradesh, for onward dispatch to the Sutlej river) and Bhakra Mainline canal (which carries water from Bhakra dam, to non-riparian Haryana and non-riparian Rajasthan) Punjab farmers, in the absence of canal water, have had to use tube wells excessively resulting in huge drop in ground water levels, and water contamination all over Punjab state in areas South of that illegal Ravi-Beas link canal.

Every Punjabi feels that Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are Punjab’s rivers, and they belong to its future generations, as they flow within the state and the Parliament erred in going against the Constitution by depriving the people of Punjab their right to the use of the bulk of these waters. Non-riparian Rajasthan takes more water – free of any charge – than Punjab as does Haryana which has the chutzpah to refuse to share Jumna river water with Punjab while demanding water from the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers from the Punjab. Obviously the Badal government legal action is meant to correct this wrong and also forestall Haryana’s ‘highway robbery’ under which it plans to illegally tap into the Bhakra mainline canal inside its territory and is digging a 109 Kilometer long Hansi-Butanna canal for that purpose.

Best of luck to the Badal government at the Supreme Court but the cards there seem to be stacked against  the Punjab. Now, if the people of Punjab were to ‘stand up’, organize themselves into Jathas, and taking a cue from the state of Haryana (where, as mentioned above, an illegal canal is being dug to illegally tap the Bhakra Mainline canal inside Haryana territory) and start replenishing the underground water in the Punjab (via old abandoned wells) with water from canals like the Ravi Beas link canal, then the odds would be better and justice might prevail at the Supreme Court. The muscular and hardy people of Punjab ought to organize themselves and focus on canals carrying Punjab water, free of charge to non-riparian Haryana, like the Ravi-Beas link canal and others, all inside Punjab territory.