Himachal can’t give river water to Haryana without Punjab’s consent: Sukhbir Badal
Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said that Haryana did not have any right to waters from the Ravi-Beas basin in Himachal Pradesh being a non-riparian state
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday said that Haryana did not have any right to waters from the Ravi-Beas basin in Himachal Pradesh being a non-riparian state. He said Himachal should not part with river waters to a non-riparian state without the consent of the downstream state.
Reacting to news reports of negotiations having started between Himachal and Haryana to construct a canal to take river waters directly from Himachal to Haryana and a likely meeting to finalise this arrangement on June 5, the SAD president said that another conspiracy has been initiated to rob Punjab of its river waters. “We will not let it succeed at any cost.” he said.
Sukhbir said that Himachal and Punjab are joint owners of river waters being the upstream and downstream states. “The upstream state cannot transfer water out of the watershed without due consideration of the rights of the downstream state,” he added. The SAD president requested Himachal chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu not to enter into any negotiation on transfer of river waters from Himachal to Haryana. He said Himachal could not part with any water to a non-riparian state without Punjab’s consent. “Re-opening this issue after the closure of the SYL canal in Punjab by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal who returned the land acquired for the canal from farmers back to them will amount to reopening old wounds. These could lead to intense inter-state and inter-people strife which would be detrimental to peace in the region,” he said in a statement.