Haryana CM disscusses water issue with Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz

New Delhi, Mar 6 (UNI) Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda today met Union Water Resources Minister Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz and discussed the issue of beas and Ravi water with him.

Mr Hooda said the unconstitutional and questionable motives of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in raising the issue of Beas waters which are owned by Haryana through ownership rights in BMB-BSL and Ravi waters, which are national assets, are designed to gain cheap publicity which has serious implications for peace and prosperity of this region.

He said the Haryana Government and people of the state would give a befitting response to such irresponsible intentions of the new government in Punjab.

It has been reported in the press that Mr Badal Punjab Chief Minister has expressed his intention to scrap section 5 of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004 which states that ''all existing and actual utilisations through the existing systems shall remain protected and unaffected.'' Mr Hooda said the President has made a reference to the Supreme Court regarding the constitutional validity of this entire Act.

''It is not understood how a piece of legislation, the Constitutional validity of whole of which is under consideration of the Supreme Court, is sought to be amended'', he added.

60 per cent of Haryana falls in Indus Basin and added it is a basin state for the Indus system. Further as a successor state, Haryana is as much a riparian state as Punjab is for rivers Ravi and Beas.

Mr Hooda said Haryana has inherent rights in the water of these rivers. These rights are in the nature of ownership of the then Bhakra Management Board (BMB) which was renamed as BBMB later.

The rights of Haryana include the ownership rights in Beas-Satluj Link (BSL) recognised in the BSL Project report prepared in 1961.

The report stated the diversion of Beas through tunnels and an open channel would generate power and ''the river supplies so diverted would also enable extension of irrigation to the arid areas in the South and South West of Punjab''. It was these arid area in the South and South-West which became Haryana in 1966.

It was further mentioned in this report that Punjab can use only a portion of these waters and the balance must be necessarily transferred for irrigating the above mentioned arid tracts.

The Chief Minister said thus the waters of river Beas through BSL and Bhakra System, which are owned by Haryana as partner inherently belong to the state. It is for this reason that even while framing the unconstitutional Act, the Punjab Assembly was constrained to incorporate section 5 in the Act.

Mr Hooda said so far as Ravi waters are concerned, the Centre had paid Rs 110 crore to Pakistan to get these waters. He said these waters are National Assets and the shares in these were quantified in the 1981 agreement which bears the signatures of not only the then Chief Ministers of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, but also of the then Prime Minister Mrs Indira Gandhi.

''By no stretch of imagination, Punjab can appropriate this national asset to the exclusion of others having equal entitlement,'' he added.

He said even now, about 3 MAF of Ravi water is flowing to Pakistan. He said Haryana has submitted a feasibility report to Centre to tap this water belonging to India, but Punjab is opposing it.

He said Haryana's suggestion of having an automatic gauge monitored by Central Water Commission is also being opposed by Punjab Government clearly showing that the neighbouring state Punjab is not willing to let the facts come out.

UNI