Presidential reference on SYL Canal issue on March 28

New Delhi, Mar 9 (UNI) The Presidential reference on the controversial Sutlej-Yamuna-Link Canal issue pending before the Supreme Court for the last two years will come up for hearing on March 28.

The date for the hearing was fixed by a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan when the Counsel for Haryana mentioned the long pendency of the reference made by President A P J Abdul Kalam.

The Congress Government in Haryana sought an early hearing of the reference in view of a recent statement by newly elected Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal that his government would like to scrap clause V of the Punjab Termination of Water Agreement Act which protects maintaining of the supply of the water level to the neighbouring states.

This has given a new twist to the controversy as the Badal government wanted that it should be entirely to the discretion of Punjab as to how much water should be permitted to be released to the states of Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan following stoppage of the water accord by the previous Amarinder Singh government to the neighbouring states from 1981 onwards.

The president has made the reference to the apex court to decide the question whether a state has a right to unilaterally scrap an agreement like this with other states? UNI