Supreme Court and Haryana’s triple conspiracy against Punjab

Indian Supreme Court assures Haryana that it  will hold hearing in April 2008 on the SYL canal issue validity of Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act-2004 

Central Water Commission's 'no objection' to Haryana's illegal Hansi Butana canal



Washington, D.C., Wednesday, March 19, 2008 - The brazen conspiracy to steal some more of Punjab’s life-giving river water (from water-short Punjab’s present and future generations) unfolded, last Thursday - 13 March, 2008 - in the halls of the Indian Supreme Court, built by the Colonial British on stolen Sikh Gurdawara lands, in New Delhi, India.

As correctly predicted in the Khalistan Calling of 2 January, 2008, headlined, “Indian Supreme Court plans to ambush Punjab after the New Year by deciding water disputes in Haryana’s favor,” a completely biased and dishonest Central Water Commission (CWC) ‘opinion’ (about the illegal Hansi-Butana canal arbitrarily built by Haryana to steal Punjab’s river water) was placed last week before a Bench of the Indian Supreme Court, (made up of Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Justice R. V. Raveendran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari) as the first act of an unfolding legal ‘Nura-Kushti’ (shadow boxing) which will deprive water-short Punjab of some more of its river water. This water will be transferred free of charge to non-riparian Haryana which has shown its ‘in-your-eye’ anti-Punjab sentiments by legislating Telugu as its second language (which no one speaks in Haryana) instead of giving that status to the Punjabi language spoken by millions of Haryanvi Sikhs and Hindus.

The Central Water Commission (CWC) is a premier Technical Organization of India in the field of Water Resources and is presently functioning as an attached office of the Ministry of Water Resources in Delhi. The Central Water Commission (Chairman Baljit Singh Ahuja, 315, Sewa Bhavan (S), RK Puram, New Delhi 110 606; Tel. 02610 8855: Chief Engineer Water Planning & Projects Wing, S. M. Sood, Tel. 02619 5519) is entrusted with the general responsibilities of initiating, coordinating and furthering in consultation of the State Governments concerned, schemes for control, conservation and utilization of water resources throughout the country, for purpose of Flood Control, Irrigation, Navigation, Drinking Water Supply and Water Power Development. It also undertakes the investigations, construction and execution of any such schemes as required.

Readers may recall the Indian Supreme Court had last year referred the matter of the illegal Hansi-Butana canal to the Central Water Commission (CWC) which is a statutory body, set up under the law, to regulate all inter-state water projects. CWC had been tasked last year, by the Supreme Court, to submit a report, by the end of December 2007, whether the state of Haryana had met with the requisite conditions under the law (when it brazenly dug up the illegal, 109 Kilometers long Hansi-Butana Link canal, costing 354 crores, in its territory without asking Punjab (or the Ministry of Water Resources in Delhi) with the aim of lifting water from the Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal, which extends up to Rajasthan. The Supreme Court was responding to an urgent application, filed, in August 2007, by senior counsel of the State of Punjab, Rajeev Dhavan. The application sought to restrain Haryana, from proceeding with the ongoing illegal construction of the 109 Kilometer long Hansi-Butana multipurpose Link Canal, which will ‘divert’ (read steal with covert help and a ‘wink and a nod’ from Bhakra Beas Management Board - BBMB) water from the Bhakra Main Line canal to irrigate areas (of non-riparian Haryana state) lying in the River Yamuna basin while Southern Punjab starves for water - both surface and underground. Hansi-Butana canal is obviously a reincarnation (by the Hooda government of non-riparian state of Haryana) of the defunct Sulej Yumna Link (SYL) canal which is now only an abandoned ditch.

According to Indian media reports the Central Water Commission (CWC) has avoided to give an explicit opinion on the basic question of legality of the controversial Hansi-Butana feeder canal being illegally built by Haryana, to the Supreme Court or whether it will flood certain areas of Punjab. (See Tribune of 13 March, 2008, headlined, “Water panel avoids explicit opinion to SC” >  http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080313/nation.htm#10  <) Instead the CWC had examined the matter mainly on four useless points arising from the suits of Punjab and Rajasthan against Haryana, challenging the illegal construction of the Hansi-Butana canal by it for carrying water from Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal to southern parts of the state for irrigation. The four questions included whether the walls of the channel will result in flooding of border villages of Punjab during monsoon, whether drawing water from the BML by Haryana will reduce supply Rajasthan, will Haryana draw more than its allocated share and the possible water logging due to the channel itself. The CWC has taken cover under the words, “No opinion is considered necessary,” in an effort to muddle up the issue in favor of Haryana. .Regarding drawing of water from the Bhakra Main Line canal by Haryana and its affect on the flow downstream to Rajasthan, the CWC fixed the responsibility on Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to ensure delivery to Punjab and Rajasthan’s due share on priority. “Haryana would utilise its share after meeting the requirement of Punjab and Rajasthan on pro-rata basis as per actual supplies received,” the CWC said adding that Haryana has furnished an “undertaking” on October 10, 2007 the delivery of their shares under the supervision of BBMB.

The CWC showed that the ‘watch dog is in cahoots with the thieves’ (Kutti choran nan ralee hoee hai) when it opined that the regulation in the undertaking given by Haryana should be entrusted to the BBMB (Bhakra-Beas-Management-Board) as a neutral agency set up to regulate the water supply among the shareholder states. The Supreme Court Bench after examining the report of the CWC directed the contesting states - Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan - to submit their responses to it to enable the court to give its final verdict.

According to another related report in the Tribune of 6 March, 2008, by its legal correspondent, headlined, “Constitutional Validity of Punjab Act on Water Accords - Hearing in April, SC assures Haryana” (>  http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080306/main6.htm  <) the prejudiced Supreme Court (Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan) showed its anti-Sikh bad faith when it gave a firm assurance to former attorney-general Ashok Desai, appearing for Haryana, about taking up the four-point Presidential reference on the constitutional validity of the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act-2004 next month, in April 2008. Readers may recall that the Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act.-2004 was passed by a magnificent unanimous vote, in the Punjab State Assembly, on July 12, 2004, when Captain Amrinder Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab. According (> /home/khalistancalling/2004/july14.aspx <)  to the above Tribune report Ashok Desai of Haryana (a shrewd and crafty attorney) made a special mention for early hearing claiming that it was an important question of law whether a state legislature could override the judgement of the Supreme Court which had ordered the central government to construct the Sutlej-Yumna-Link (SYL) canal, which issue was involved in the 2004 Presidential reference made by former President A.P.J Abdul Kalam which is still pending before the Supreme Court.

Instead of waiting for the prejudiced, dishonest, Brahmin caste-dominated Supreme Court’s triple headed ‘axe’ to fall on the Punjab in April, 2008, the Punjab leadership in general, and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal in particular, ought to hire the best Constitutional lawyers right away who could ‘stare down’ the prejudiced Supreme Kangaroo Court, by the strength of their legal arguments, and educate it that river water is a state subject under the Indian constitution and a saleable commodity under International Law. It is about time Punjab woke up, remembered the yesteryears successful campaign against the SYL canal, and claimed it's divinely ordained inheritance which income can be used to eradicate poverty and improve the life of the Punjabi masses instead of giving the water away for free to ungrateful, and hostile, non-riparian states of Rajasthan and Haryana. These lawyers of repute could also help draft legislation which would cancel ALL unequal water agreements forced on Punjab since 1947, taking inspiration from Captain Amrinder Singh’s heroic legislation (Punjab Termination of Water Agreements Act. 2004) which was passed by unanimous vote in the Punjab Assembly on July 12, 2004.