I had broken the
story in The Indian Express of July 8, 2004. It was one of the top secret
moves of Amarinder Singh but I had written about the date, time and the man
behind the SYL canal-blocking bill. Senior officers involved strictly on a
need to know basis were dumbfounded to see the news item. Meanwhile, I
continued to chase the story.
CM to meet Sorabjee today
S P Singh
Chandigarh
PUNJAB Government is going all out to bring a bill before the Assembly to escape the SYL canal handover to a Central government agency, and Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh will meet former Attorney General Soli A Sorabjee in this context tomorrow.
Though tied with political problems ever since the appointment of Parliamentary Secretaries was put on hold, the CM is expected to keep his date with Sorabjee.
Lakhanpal himself remained unavailable, and his office did not return calls.
The proposed Bill is aimed at wriggling out of a contractual obligation that Punjab took upon itself after signing an agreement with the two other states and the Centre on December 31, 1981.
Government officials tackling the fallout of the Supreme Court’s June 4 judgement on the SYL, directing Punjab to handover the canal construction work in its territory to Haryana, are of the view that it hinges on this obligation imposed by the 1981 agreement.
As per the 1981 pact, signed by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Punjab CM Darbara Singh, Rajasthan CM Shiv Charan Mathur and Haryana CM Bhajan Lal, the suits filed in the apex court by Haryana (arguing that the March 24, 1976 notification allocating 3.5 MAF to it and the same amount to Punjab is final and binding) and Punjab (challenging the Centre’s competence to enact Section 78 of the Punjab Reorganization Act 1966, thus questioning the validity of the 1976 notification) were to be withdrawn. Both did withdraw the suits, resulting in digging of the SYL canal. It left Punjab with 4.22 MAF and Haryana with 3.5 MAF and the annual mean supply was pegged at 17.17 MAF.
July 8, 2004