Our reliable sources in the Indian Ministry of Water
Resources have reported that the Central Water Commission (CWC)
has prepared a biased (and totally anti-Punjab, pro Haryana)
technical report on the illegal Hansi-Butana canal
controversy for submission to the Indian Supreme Court after
the New Year.
The Central Water Commission (CWC)
had been tasked earlier to submit a report, by the end of
December 2007, whether the state of Haryana had met with the
requisite conditions under the law (when it brazenly dug up
the illegal, 109 Kilometers long Hansi-Butana Link canal,
costing 354 crores, in its territory without asking Punjab
or the Ministry of Water Resources in Delhi) with the aim of
linking it with the Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal, which
extends up to Rajasthan. The Hansi-Butana link canal will do
what the defunct SYL canal was supposed to do. That is,
steal water-short Punjab’s river water, by siphoning it from
the Bhakra Mainline canal) with covert help of Hindutva
officials of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) who
regulates the flow of water of the Sutlej and Beas rivers
into various canals crisscrossing Punjab to carry water to
the non-riparian states of Haryana and Rajasthan.
The Central Water Commission (CWC)
is a premier Technical Organization of India in the field of
Water Resources and is presently functioning as an attached
office of the Ministry of Water Resources in Delhi. The
Central Water Commission (Chairman B. S. Ahuja, 315, Sewa
Bhavan (S), RK Puram, New Delhi 110 606; Tel. 02610 8855:
Chief Engineer Water Planning & Projects Wing, S. M. Sood,
Tel. 02619 5519) is entrusted with the general
responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering
in consultation of the State Governments concerned, schemes
for control, conservation and utilization of water resources
throughout the country, for purpose of Flood Control,
Irrigation, Navigation, Drinking Water Supply and Water
Power Development. It also undertakes the investigations,
construction and execution of any such schemes as required.
A separate
Human Resources Management Unit
headed by a Chief Engineer, deals with Human Resources
Management/Development, Financial Management, Training and
Administrative matters of the CWC.
National Water Academy
located at Pune is responsible for training of Central and
State in-service engineers and it functions directly under
the guidance of Chairman. Altogether there are Nineteen
organizations located at headquarters in New Delhi and
thirteen organizations spread over various locations
(including Chandigarh) in India
A three-Judge Supreme Court
Bench (comprising Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, Justice
R. V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari) had ordered
the Central Water Commission (CWC) to submit a report, by
December 2007 end, in response to an urgent application,
filed in August 2007 by senior counsel of the State of
Punjab, Rajeev Dhavan. The application sought to restrain
Haryana, from proceeding with the ongoing illegal
construction of the 109 Kilometer long Hansi-Butana
multipurpose Link Channel, which will ‘divert’ (read steal
with covert help and a ‘wink and a nod’ from Bhakra Beas
Management Board - BBMB) water from the Bhakra Main Line
canal to irrigate areas (of non-riparian Haryana state)
lying in the River Yamuna basin while Southern Punjab
starves for water - both surface and underground.
Hansi-Butana canal is obviously a reincarnation (by the
Hooda government of non-riparian state of Haryana) of the
defunct Sulej Yumna Link (SYL) canal which is now only a
ditch breeding mosquitoes!
Punjabs’ above mentioned
application, addressed to the Supreme Court, pointed out
that the non-riparian state of Haryana has NOT obtained the
mandatory clearance, from the Government, for construction
of the illegal Hansi-Butana canal and the project suffers
from technical infirmities, as any submergence of the
territory within Punjab, without its consent, was illegal.
Further, no prior concurrence - a MUST - of Punjab (and
Rajasthan, which like Punjab is also served by the Bhakra
main line canal) was obtained by Haryana. Neither was a
clearance, under the provisions of the Forest Conservation
Act, had been obtained by the state of Haryana. Punjabs’
application to the Supreme Court also said that the project,
undertaken by Haryana, would puncture the Bhakra Main Line
Canal (in contravention of the Bhakra Nangal Agreement of
1959) near the village of Ajimgarh in Kaithal district. This
embankment would result in floods and consequential damage
and ingress into Punjab. The channel would act as a barrier
to free flow of water resulting in backwater formation and
submergence of land in Punjab and would affect supplies in
the downstream reaches of Punjab, which were crystallized
into rights under the Bhakra Nangal Agreement of 1959.
Punjabs’ application to the
Supreme Court had pointed out that, “Apart from violating
the territorial rights, the construction of the embankment
along the link channel abutting the territory of Punjab for
20 km in the direction of West to East would obstruct free
flow of surface water in the direction of North to South
resulting in backwater formation and flooding in the
territory of Punjab.” The application, had, “further pleaded
that the embankment would result in displacement of over one
lakh (100, 000) people living in 70 villages; submergence of
20,756 acres of land spread over 32 villages; disruption of
communication; disruption of the existing irrigation system;
cause other damages including the rehabilitation measures
and interfere with the health and safety of people”.
According to irrigation engineers in the Punjab, the
Hansi-Butana canal is an under-handed reincarnation of the
defunct SYL canal which was ‘killed’ when the Punjab State
Assembly, by a unanimous vote, passed, ‘The Punjab
Termination of Agreements Act, 2004' on 12 July, 2004. (For
a backgrounder on Haryanas’ water wars against Punjab, see
Khalistan Calling, dated 14 July, 2004, headlined, ‘PUNJAB's
FINEST HOUR ON THE SYL CANAL ISSUE - Punjab Assembly
unanimously passes the historic 'Punjab Termination of
Agreements Bill, 2004', by clicking at the following link:
>
http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/2004/july14.aspx
< )
In the Khalistan Calling dated
12 September, 2007, headlined, ‘Wake up Punjab’ (>
/home/khalistancalling/2007/september12.aspx
<) the readers were alerted to the fact that the Supreme
Court for some strange reason has suddenly woken up, and
noticed, various long-standing water disputes (between
water-short Punjab and neighboring non-riparian
Hindu-majority states of Haryana and Rajasthan) which had
been pigeon-holed for years. In an ominous coincidence three
politically important cases, all pertaining to the
decades-long on-going theft of Punjab’s river waters by
Rajasthan and Haryana, (including the 2004 presidential
reference on the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act-2004)
have been listed for hearing in the Supreme Court. The
biased Supreme Court has scheduled hearings on all of these,
as well as two other, disputes beginning next week. It is
obvious the intent is to steal some more of water-short
Punjab’s river water (stored in the Bhakra and Pong Dams)
and deny it to the parched lands of its Sikh farmers with
some legal hocus-pocus which the lazy Badal government may
not be able to counter. The picture looks bleak for the
future generation of rural Punjabis if the Brahmanical
conspiracy succeeds.” End quote.
One can only wish the best of
luck to the Badal government at the Supreme Court in the
year 2008 but the cards at that ‘Kangaroo’ court seem to be
stacked against the Punjab and its mostly Sikh farmers. From
the look of things Punjab will lose its legal cases filed at
the Supreme ‘Kangaroo’ Court unless its people were to
‘stand up’, with the slogan, ‘Remember the SYL canal’ on
their lips (and in their hearts) and organize themselves
into Jathas ready for action. Then only will Punjab stand a
chance in the world’s largest demoNcracy’s apex court.
Punjabis in general, and Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal
in particular, ought to take a cue from the feverish
activities of the state of Haryana (in its construction of
the illegal Hansi-Butana link canal) and start replenishing
the underground water in the Punjab (via old abandoned
wells) with water siphoned from canals flowing inside Punjab
territory like the Ravi Beas link canal. This provocative
action might improve the odds at the Supreme Court of
justice prevailing there.
The muscular and hardy people
of Punjab therefore, ought to recollect the methods which
were used by Punjabis so successfully, some decades ago, to
stop the Sutlej Yumna Link (SYL) canal construction in its
tracks. All Punjabis should take a New Year vow to unite and
organize themselves right away and ‘zero-in’ on canals,
flowing inside Punjab territory, which carry Punjab river
water, free of charge, to non-riparian states like Haryana.
The Ravi-Beas link canal and Bhakra Mainline canal come to
mind. These canals are a ready and handy source of fresh
water which can be used to replenish and halt the dangerous
fall in underground water levels in the Sikh Homeland caused
by the transfer (free of charge) of Punjab’s river water to
non-riparian states of Haryana and Rajasthan for the past so
many years. If Haryana can do it so can Punjab!
