NEW DELHI: Haryana Government has moved the Supreme Court seeking a status quo in the Satluj-Yamuna Link canal issue. Hearing a petition filed by a lawyer on behalf of a non-governmental organisation for criminal contempt of court against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, and son and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur decided to take up the matter in due time.
As per the petitioner, both, father and son said on record that they will not follow the apex court order on the issue. The court had termed the law passed by Punjab in 2004 to terminate the SYL canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states "unconstitutional". A constitution bench of the court had ruled that Punjab could not have taken a "unilateral" decision to terminate the agreement with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh to share of the Ravi-Beas river water. Sukhbir, in response to the order, had said that Punjab would not share water with any other state. "A decision taken at an emergency meeting of the Punjab cabinet said that Punjab Government would not allow the SYL to be built at any cost nor a single brick would be allowed to be laid for its construction by any agency," he had said.
Badal added, "As far as legal steps are concerned, advocates will advise us on what can be legally done. Our main aim is to not let the water go, and we will do anything for that. We want to assure people of Punjab that only we can do this, and resignation in Congress is just a drama."
The Punjab government had denotified the land acquired for the canal from farmers and gave it back to them, last week. All 5,378 acres were returned free of cost. This was the second time in seven months that the land was denotified.
