Badal cautioned on water Act

Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz today advised Badal to resolve the issue through dialogue. Any unilateral action could complicate the issue, he said, while emphasising that it would not be in the interest of Punjab as well as Rajasthan and Haryana. Soz told reporters that a reference had been made to the Supreme Court for sharing waters of common rivers and Badal should wait for the decision of the apex court. He suggested talks among chief ministers of the three states and offered to join the discussions if they so desired. He said the three states should reach a compromise on the basis of “equity and justice.”

By pushing through the Act, Amarinder Singh had hijacked a major emotive issue from the Akalis even at the cost of annoying his own Congress high command. The party leadership was particularly unhappy because he had struck a few months before Assembly polls in Haryana. The Akalis, after having been outmanoeuvered, still tried to be one-up on Amarinder. They promised to do away even with Section 5.

Responding to the announcement, the former CM today maintained that Badal could not do so as the matter was sub judice. He told reporters at Chandigarh that any such action would amount to challenging the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966, which stipulated that Haryana and Rajasthan would continue to get water as per their existing shares.