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Punjab was taken aback unexpectedly last month after the union Cabinet approved in principle to building of a second channel on the Ravi-Beas link to divert its waters into Haryana what the Centre termed as “unutilised water flowing into Pakistan”. Punjab was actually caught napping after the Centre cleared Haryana government’s proposal for creating a second Ravi-Beas link and included it in the 14 national projects to be taken up under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Projects (AIBP).
Punjab chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh told The Tribune that Punjab had put forward a case to the Centre saying that no surplus water was flowing into Pakistan and that Punjab was itself running short of water. The dam at Madhopur was already withholding water that was being released for irrigation. Besides, the state put up a case that the land in Punjab was almost flat, making it impossible for large streams of water to flow into Pakistan.
Reacting to Punjab’s concern and the objection, the union government has sent a letter to Punjab saying that it would not go ahead with the project sans consultations with Punjab and without making it a partner in the project. Badal has already declared that the Punjab had no water to spare and further it was unviable and unfeasible to dig a canal through Punjab’s territory.
Earlier, Haryana had submitted a proposal to the Centre without consulting with Punjab to include creating a second Ravi-Beas link in the 14 national projects to be taken up under AIBP.
Haryana’s claim is that a large quantity of Ravi water, which belonged to India under the Indus Water Treaty, was flowing into Pakistan. Haryana has also in the past pressed for installation of a automatic gauge to be monitored by the Central Water Commission (CWC) on the Ravi to measure the amount of water flowing across the border.