A farm worker drinks water from a electric tube well at a farm in Khudani Kalan, a village 25 kilometers from the city of Ludhiana, Punjab, on March 14, 2011. Over-usage of ground water by Punjabi farmers growing wheat and rice has led to a drastic fall in the water table across the state. CREDIT: Manpreet Romana for The Wall Street Journal.
PUNJAB
There is no doubt that the condition of Punjab is critical, and it
will worsen in the coming days. The problem needs to be properly
analysed. The Punjab government is under a debt of more than 122000
crore rupees (including the debt of 49832 crore rupees incurred by
The Punjab Electricity Board and other corporations). It entails a
yearly interest of about several crore rupees. The Punjab farmers are
reeling under loans of 35000 crores of rupees. For many of them
suicide is the only way out of their plight. Many others are dying of
cancer and other diseases. Young men and women, for want of proper
employment, are ruining themselves and their families by getting
addicted to intoxicants, or are fleeing to foreign countries where
only misery awaits them. Punjab’s bill of salaries and pensions
amounts to 18242 crore rupees which is 70% of the total income of the
government. The whole blame for this predicament is laid on the
policies of the Badal government. It is said that the Badal government
is wasting money on schemes like giving free power to farmers, helping
the poor brides and providing subsidised grains to the B.P.L.
families. But such practices are adopted by other states also, even by
the Centre. In fact such is the vote politics prevailing in the
country that governments have willy- nilly to do many good or bad
things to keep the voters in good humour. When the salaries and
pensions of employees were raised under the fifth pay commission,
Punjab incurred an additional annual expenditure of 2700 crore rupees,
besides arrears of 4800 crore rupees. An impression was created about
all this as if the government had committed a crime, although increase
in salaries is a normal thing and the Centre and other states have
also increased the salaries of their employees.
It cannot be denied that the Badal government suffers from several
defects. But the purpose of this kind of propaganda is to divert
attention from the real cause. If the truth is exposed, the blame
shifts to the Centre and then quarrel arises with the Centre which is
always sought to be avoided.
Green Revolution. One big factor responsible for the misery of Punjab
is the so-called green revolution which started in 1960s. It was
really a cruel fraud played upon the farmers of Punjab. India was
facing serious food shortage. The government, the agricultural
university and the big trading companies prompted the Punjab farmers
to produce maximum grains in their fields. Banks and other agencies
showered loans on them. Punjab has 4 lakh tractors. If the cost of one
tractor, including implements, is assessed at a minimum of Rs. five
lakhs, the cost of these tractors amounts to 20000 crore rupees. In
2009 Punjab provided 140 lakh tons of rice and 100 lakh tons of wheat
to the Centre. But what did the Punjab farmers gain out of this? If
the costs of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, diesel, electricity, rent
of the land, wear and tear of machinery, interest incurred on
agricultural loans and labour are taken into account , (according to a
memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister by Bhartiya Kisan Union in
April 2011) the production of one quintal of wheat costs the farmer
Rs. 2434 and the production cost of one quintal of rice amounts to Rs.
2295. According to the prices fixed by the Centre, the farmers got
about Rs. 1120 for one quintal of wheat and Rs. 1050 for one quintal
of rice. Somebody may argue: If dividends are really so negative, why
do the farmers continue with this work? The farmers are in fact
helpless. If they do not extract the maximum from their land by using
all their means and energy, the noose of debt tightens around their
necks. They also have to provide bread to their families. The real
gainers are the Centre and the companies which sell fertilizers,
pesticides, diesel and other such things. The condition of farmers is
really that of slaves. In olden times the invaders took away people as
captives and forced them to do hard work. But these days slavery has
assumed a new form. Today the farmers of Punjab are bound by the
invisible chains of debt, and their men, women and children have to
toil day and night. The peculiarity of this type of slavery is that
slaves do not know that they are slaves. And the condition of the
Punjab farmers is going, day by day, from bad to worse. There is no
hope from any quarter. The Centre sanctioned large funds in the
2009-10 budget (Rs. 72000 crores) to provide relief to farmers; but
Punjab received a paltry 1.3 % of that money. Policies are framed in
such a way that Punjab benefits the least from them. Out of the total
revenue collected by the Centre from this state only 1.39 % is
returned to it.
23 % of land in Punjab is irrigated by canals. 73 % is irrigated by
tubewells. There are more than 14 lakh tubewells in the state; one
third of which run on diesel. Farmers have spent billions of rupees on
installing these water-extractors. Rs.5000 crore worth of electricity
was consumed by tubewells during 2011 (farmers got this power free of
charge; but the state had to foot the bill). Besides this, an almost
equal amount was spent by the farmers on diesel for running tubewells.
According to an estimate, Punjab has so far spent 80000 crore rupees
on extracting ground water. (Compared with canal irrigation,
irrigation by electric operated tubewells is 3-4 times more costly,
and that by diesel-operated tubewells is 10-12 times more expensive).
In order to get maximum produce, the farmers use excessive quantities
of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, which is 3 to 4 times the
quantity used per acre in Canada. Punjab consumes one quarter of the
total insecticides and pesticides used in the country. It has
poisoned soil, ground water and crops. In this way, Punjab produces
20 % of the total wheat and 12 % of the total rice of the country. And
its contribution constitutes 60-70 % of wheat and 40-45 % of rice of
the central pool. Punjab has 1.53 % of land of India. This overuse of
land and subsoil water is like tearing open the womb of the goose
which laid golden eggs. The water which was deposited in the ground
over thousands of years is being extracted most recklessly. Now, as
the upper layer of water has been exhausted, submersible pumps are
being sunk which suck water from the depth of 7-8 hundred feet. One
submersible pump costs more than two lakh rupees. During the last few
years the farmers have incurred loans of billions of rupees for this
purpose. Now things have come to a pass where hand pumps in many areas
have gone dry and people have to install submersible pumps for
drinking water. The subsoil water in almost half of the Punjab is
saline and not fit for irrigation. Its long time use is bound to
render the soil saline and infertile. There is another dangerous
aspect of the tubewell irrigation. The extraction (34 billion cubic
metres) is much higher than the recharge. So, there is real danger of
Punjab turning soon into a semi-desert. Moreover the water drawn from
deeper levels contains heavy metals like arsenic, mercury and uranium
which cause deadly diseases.
Loot of Punjab in the time of extremism: Punjab was number one state
in India in 1981; its per capita income was double the national per
capita income. In 1982 the Akalis started a ‘Morcha’ (campaign) to
stop the construction of the Satluj-Yamuna Link (S.Y.L.) canal meant
for carrying the Punjab water to Haryana. Owing to the atrocities
committed by the government, the ‘Morcha’ took a secessionist turn. In
order to crush secessionism, the Centre permitted the police and
security forces to loot and kill the Sikhs freely. Punjab became a
hunting ground. Policemen of other provinces saw greener pastures in
Punjab and sought deputation to the state. The police and other forces
robbed and killed the Sikhs most ruthlessly for ten years. They would
pick up Sikh youngmen and ask their parents to pay huge ransoms,
otherwise they would be tortured and killed. The hapless parents
raised money by incurring loans or selling their lands. Similarly,
they had to pay large amounts to save the sanctity of their women. In
this way billions upon billions of rupees were extorted; gains must
have been shared with those in control at the Centre. This consistent
and prolonged plunder would shame the lootings of Abdali and Nadir
Shah. Besides this, the Centre imposed Rs.5800 crore on Punjab as
charges of the central forces for eliminating about 40 thousand
“terrorist” Sikhs. It is significant that armed forces have been used
by the Centre in Jammu and Kashmir and in the north-eastern states
since 1958 for the same purpose, and now they are being employed in
Bengal and Chhatisgarh, but no such levy has been imposed on any of
these states. Moreover, Punjab had never sought deployment of armed
forces, nor was it ever consulted about it. Punjab could have
recovered from this horrible blow, as it had recovered from the
immense losses it suffered during 1947. But, in spite of all their
grit and toil, the condition of the people of Punjab continued to
worsen. Why?
Loot of Punjab waters: The root cause of the deepening crisis of
Punjab is the plunder of its river waters. It is nothing short of
cutting the jugular vein of Punjab. 70 % of Punjab’s population lives
on agriculture. Almost all the Sikhs are farmers. Formerly a good
number of them went into army; but now that door has been almost
closed upon them. They survive by cultivating their small holdings
intensively, for which canal irrigation is most necessary. There being
no other natural resources, the river waters have life-and-death
significance for Punjab.
The issue of the distribution of the waters of the Punjab rivers, as
it stands now, is hopelessly complicated; best brains have been
employed to distort and confuse it. However, there are some broad
facts which can be helpful for a lay man to understand the problem.
The river waters are governed, on the national and international
levels, by the riparian principle. According to it, if a river lies
wholly within the territory of one state, it entirely belongs to that
state and no other state has any right in it. And where a river flows
through more than one state, each state owns that part of the river
which runs through its territory. There can be disputes about river
waters only between riparian states and not between a riparian state
and a non-riparian state. Under international law, river and river
waters which flow on land are an essential part of the land or
territory of a state, which has absolute rights therein, because
territory constitutes an integral attribute of a state. The
fundamental principle and rationale underlying the riparian law is
that the inhabitants in the basin of a river have suffered, for
centuries, the losses of land, property, cattle and human life from
the ravages of the river. Therefore they alone are entitled to the
benefits of the river concerned. For example, in the 1988 floods
alone, Punjab suffered a loss of hundreds of lives besides the loss
of property estimated officially at one billion dollars; while
Rajasthan, Haryana or Delhi has never lost anything due to the floods
of the Punjab rivers.
The riparian law is embodied in the Indian constitution. As per entry
17 of List-ii under Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, river waters
are a state subject, and only a state has the right to control and use
the waters of its rivers. According to the Helsinki Rules, 1966,
adopted by the International Law Association, which India has signed,
“the rivers belong to the state through which they pass”. The river
waters and hydroelectric power being an exclusively state subject, the
Centre has no control over them. However, there is a provision for
adjudication of disputes relating to river waters of interstate rivers
or river valleys:
(i) Parliament may by law provide for the adjudication of any dispute
or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the
waters of, or in, any interstate river or river valley.
(ii) Notwithstanding anything in the constitution Parliament may by
law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall
exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint as
is referred to in clause (I).
Under this clause the Centre has enacted several pieces of
legislation, and thus assumed powers to set up boards and tribunals to
adjudicate disputes and complaints about interstate rivers. But the
riparian right has not been negated. The important point is that the
tribunals constituted under this law can adjudicate only about
disputes in respect of interstate rivers (i.e. between co-riparian
states) and not disputes between the riparian and the non-riparian
states.
A case in point is the claim of Rajasthan on the waters of the Narmada
river. The Narmada flows through the territories of Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra and Gujarat, but not through Rajasthan. Rajasthan made a
petition for a share from the waters of the river. The tribunal court
consisting of a sitting judge of the Supreme Court, ruled:
“(i) Rajasthan being a non-riparian state in regard to Narmada, cannot
apply to the Tribunal, because under the act only a co-riparian state
can do so; and (ii) the state of Rajasthan is not entitled to any
portion of the waters of Narmada basin on the ground that the state of
Rajasthan is not a co-riparian state, or that no portion of its
territory is situated in the basin of River Narmada.”
On Rajasthan’s plea that it should get water of the Narmada because it
was getting water from the Punjab rivers although it was non-riparian
to these rivers, the judge remarked:
“Utilization of Ravi and Beas: The aportionment of water was the
result of an agreement. It appears from Rajasthan documents Volume VI
at pages 26 and 30 that Punjab was prepared to satisfy the needs of
Rajasthan, provided its needs as a riparian state were first
satisfied.”
When Pakistan was formed in 1947, the Indian Punjab and the Pakistan
Punjab became co-riparian states in respect of the Punjab rivers. A
few months after the Partition, India and Pakistan signed a “stand
still agreement” which provided for maintaining the water supplies at
the level of appropriation/ allocation at the time of Partition.
However, soon a quarrel developed between the two countries which
threatened to turn into war. The World Bank offered its “good offices”
to bring about an agreement between the contesting neighbors. Both the
countries accepted the offer and negotiations started under the aegis
of the World Bank. These continued by fits and starts for many years.
At one stage (in 1954), India, at the suggestion of one Mr. N. D.
Gulati, who presented the Indian case before the Indus Water
Commission, devised a ploy to heighten its claim vis-a-vis Pakistan.
It was argued before the commission that 8 M.A.F. waters of the Punjab
rivers would be used for irrigation in Rajasthan after fulfilling the
needs of East Punjab. However, Pakistan did not insist on its share in
the three eastern rivers —. The Satluj, the Beas, and the Ravi. It
had more than enough water in the Chenab, the Jhelum and the mighty
Indus. (The Indus did not flow in Punjab, but Punjab fell in its
basin. The other five rivers joined the Indus before falling into the
Arabian Sea). Pakistan decided to divert the waters of these three
western rivers to the area fed by the Satluj, the Beas and the Ravi,
rather than allow its agriculture to be at the tender mercies of its
upper riparian neighbour, the relations between the two countries
being hostile. Indus Basin Rivers Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 by
Nehru and Ayub Khan, according to which the total waters of the
Satluj, the Beas and the Ravi were allotted to Indian Punjab, and the
other two rivers (and the Indus) went wholly to its western
counterpart. For diverting its waters Pakistan was given aid by the
World Bank and some friendly countries. India also made some
contribution. In the controversy over the Punjab waters distribution
the opponents of the Punjab (including Comrade Sat Pal Dang) developed
the argument that, since the Centre had “purchased” water from
Pakistan, it could hand it over to any state.
At the time of Partition, the Satluj, the Beas and the Ravi had 32.5
M.A.F. of water. Nine M.A.F. of it was being consumed in the areas
which later constituted the Punjabi Suba. One M.A.F. was going to the
erstwhile state of Bikaner under an agreement signed by Bikaner,
Bahawalpur and the British Punjab in 1920. Bikaner was getting this
water against payment because it was not a riparian state. The royalty
was received by the government of Punjab and not by the Central
government, because waters belonged to the state and not to the
Centre. The areas which later formed Haryana were not getting any
water of the Punjab rivers. The rest of the water of these rivers was
either used in the West Punjab (now in Pakistan) or flowed into the
sea. Apart from these waters, Punjab was receiving 5.6 M.A.F. of water
from the Yamuna, because a part of the Punjab (now Haryana) fell in
its basin.
The ploy which was devised to outfox Pakistan came to be used against
Punjab. In 1955 the Centre allotted 8 M.A.F. of water to Rajasthan.
The order was passed at a meeting chaired by Gulzari Lal Nanda who was
Irrigation and Power Minister in the Nehru cabinet at that time. Later
the Centre gave it the shape of an “agreement” by putting pressure on
Punjab. It was written in this decision that the cost of this water
would be worked out separately. (Sardar Pritam Singh Kumedan has dug
out this fact.) The file was marked as “secret” so that its contents
were not made public lest there should be protest against it.
Rajasthan had in fact never made a demand for the Punjab waters. When
the Centre asked it to make a survey for the proposed Rajasthan Canal,
it refused to do so because it thought it would be a useless
expenditure as it had no hope to get this water. Then the Centre
itself made the survey and built the canal. In fact, the Centre had
conceived this villainy against Punjab as early as 1948. It got a
head-regulator built in the Harike headworks in 1952 for the Rajasthan
Canal with a capacity of 18500 cusecs, although the construction of
this canal commenced six years later.
It was clear to all right- thinking men that, and some of them had
even sounded a warning, that it would be extremely unprofitable to
carry such huge quantities of water into desert. It seems that the
intention of the Centre primarily was to rob Punjab of its only
natural resource. Although Gulzari Lal Nanda was the chief character
in this fiendish game, he was an assistant of Nehru and was fulfilling
his will. In fact this inimical attitude towards Punjab is not limited
to Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi or other individuals. It is
rather a permanent mindset which and is constantly at work at all
levels.
The Project of Rajasthan Canal, with a feeder 292 miles long ( the
total length upto the tail end is 426 miles), was hurriedly
undertaken. The necessary studies to determine its feasibility were
not made. No well-meaning government could have undertaken such a big
project with so little thought. In 1958, when the project was in
progress, the Indian government invited a team of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation to examine the project. The team said in its report, “In
order to make a comprehensive study of a project calling for the
irrigation of 4.5 million acres of land, it would be necessary for the
Bureau of Reclamation to devote years of time making land
classification, agricultural economics and settlement studies —–.
The team is of the opinion that further investigations would have been
highly desirable prior to initiation of construction.”
Alloys A.. Michael, an international authority on river waters, states
in “The Indus River — A Study of the Effects of Partition”:
“Viewed realistically the Rajasthan Project in its ultimate form is a
dubious one —–. The idea of extending the Rajasthan Canal parallel
to Indo-Pakistan border in the northern portion of the Thar Desert
down to a point about opposite Sukkur Barrage was a seductive one: 7.9
million acres could be brought under command and 6.7 million of these
are potentially cultivable although the project in its present form is
limited to supplying water to only 4.5 million acres, of which only
3.5 million would be cultivated in a given year.—– Assured by her
geographical position and later by the treaty of the full use of the
Eastern Rivers, India naturally sought an area to irrigate. Forgotten
or overlooked were the fundamental differences between the Punjab,
with its convergent streams, tapering doabs and silty soil, and the
Thar Desert, hundreds of miles from the Sutlej, with its sand and sand
dunes. The cumulative irrigation experience in India, Egypt, the U.S.
and the Soviet Union indicates that more food and fibre can be
obtained by increasing the water allowance to existing cultivated
lands than by spreading water thin over new tracts.—- But to
introduce it into the Thar Desert is economically unjustifiable. The
8.8 M.A.F. of Beas-Sutlej-Ravi waters that are to be diverted from
Harike for the Rajasthan Canal could be put to much better use in the
East Punjab, north and south of the Sutlej and in the eastern margins
of Rajasthan served by the Bikaner Canal and the Sirhind Feeder.
Combined with the concentrated application of the limited fertilizers
at India’s disposal, yields in the established areas could be doubled
or trebled at a saving in cost and pain in Rajasthan. The very
experience with the Bhakra project itself, which increased water
supplies to 3.3 million acres south of the Sutlej, demonstrates this.
Yet even here, out of every 182 cusecs run into the canal, 112 are
lost by seepage, evaporation and nonbeneficial transpiration of
plants. (Bracketed note mine: The Bhakra Canal irrigates 16 lakh acres
in Haryana, 9 lakh acres in Rajasthan and only 11 lakh acres in the
Punjab.) In the Rajasthan Canal, although the lining will reduce
seepage in the main canal to a minimum, evaporation alone might reduce
supplies by 50 per cent. And the seepage losses in the unlined branch
canals, distributaries, minors, sub-minors, water-courses and on the
bounded fields themselves will further reduce the share of water that
can be used beneficially by plants of economic value.” The
consequences of conveying these waters into the infertile desert, at a
huge cost, “could be plain frustration in the end.”
The canal was built with utmost haste. (Lest the owner should wake up
before goods were stolen away.) The land was acquired and the canal
was built while Partap Singh Kairon was the chief minister. A
well-informed and shrewd man, he must have been aware of its harmful
consequences for Punjab; but Punjab’s interests were not his
interests. Same was the attitude of Swaran Singh. The Akali leaders,
in their crass ignorance, might not have known that it would in the
long run spell ruin for their community.
The Rajasthan canal, as it has been dug across the natural flow of
water, has caused waterlogging in large areas of Punjab. Even in
Rajasthan, it is proving to be a source of misery for countless
people. There lies a stony layer under the soil where a long portion
of the canal runs in Rajasthan, which does not allow the water to
percolate into the ground, with the result that a vast area has become
waterlogged and unfit for cultivation, depriving the people of
whatever crops they could get from their unirrigated lands. Besides,
it has disturbed the ecological balance of the region.
When a demand was being made for the creation of Haryana, in 1965, the
leaders of Haryana knew that, after separation from Punjab, they would
have no right in the three rivers of Punjab. Chaudhri Devi Lal and
other leaders reassured their people that they would manage their
needs with the water of the Yamuna and , if needed , they would get
water from U.P. They distributed pamphlets to this effect. But the
Centre arbitrarily allotted water from the Punjab rivers to Haryana.
And Haryana since then , encouraged by the entre, has started
asserting its claim on the Punjab waters.
In 1976 Indira Gandhi, empowered by the Punjab Reorganisation Act
(which is specially designed to harm Punjab and is violative of the
Indian Constitution), handed down a unilateral award allocating 3.5
M.A.F. of water to Haryana, 3.5 M.A.F. to the Punjab and 8 M.A.F. to
Rajasthan, which was shaped into a notification of the Irrigation
Ministry of the Central government. The Sikhs opposed the
distribution. Parkash Singh Badal called it a “death sentence” on the
farmers of Punjab. Giani Zail Singh, the chief minister of Punjab at
that time, felt perturbed, not because the award was harmful for
Punjab but because it might turn the agriculturist voters of the state
against him. But afraid of the displeasure of Indira Gandhi, he made
no protest. He accepted Rs. two crores from Haryana as “advance
payment for the S.Y.L. construction”. Another instalment was later
accepted by Parkash Singh Badal when he became chief minister.
Punjab filed a suit in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of
Section 78 of the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, under which this
notification was issued. Advocate Hardev Singh suggested to Badal to
challenge all the water, including the portion transferred to
Rajasthan. But Badal rejected the idea by saying, “There is no need
for such a drastic action”. Haryana approached the Supreme Court for
the implementation of this notification of the Central government. The
matter was also brought before prime minister Morarji Desai, who had
replaced Indira Gandhi in the 1977 election. Desai, after discerning
the riperian position of the states, told Haryana and Rajasthan
bluntly that they had no right to the Punjab waters. It was clear that
the award and the Reorganisation Act, under which it was given, being
violative of the constitution, would not stand in the court. In the
mean time Indira Gandhi returned to power. She coerced the chief
minister of Punjab to sign an agreement with Haryana and Rajasthan so
that the award was legitimised and the case withdrawn from the Supreme
Court. Darbara Singh, the chief minister in question, was really
unwilling and said that he was being compelled to sign “at the point
of gun.” But when she threatened to remove him from chief
ministership, he gave in and signed on the dotted line. The case was
withdrawn from the Supreme Court.
In fact no chief minister, whatever his party, would oppose the
Central dictate, however harmful it might be for the state. They know
that they cannot sit comfortably in the chief minister’s chair after
antagonising the Centre. And., their own interests are always dearer
to them than the interests of Punjab. The long and short of the of the
story is that about 65 % of total water of the rivers of Punjab has
been given away to Rajasthan and Haryana. Total water in the Satluj,
the Beas and the Ravi was originally assessed at 32.5 M.A.F. (but now
it is reported to have been reduced to 28.5 M.A.F., or even less, due
to natural changes.) Rajasthan takes away 11.2 M.A.F. of the Punjab
river waters (8.6 M.A.F. through the Rajasthan Canal, 1.5 M.A.F.
through the Bhakra Canal and 1.1 M.A.F. through the Bikaner Canal).
And, Haryana has been allotted 7.83 M.A.F. (4.33 M.A.F. goes from the
Satluj through the Bhakra Canal. Besides this, 1.62 M.A.F. out of 3.5
M.A.F. alloted from the Ravi-Beas system also runs through the Bhakra
canal. The remaining 1.88 M.A.F. is a bone of contention. Over and
above this, Haryana also takes 5.6 M.A.F. from the Yamuna.). To add
insult to injury, sermons are given, day in and day out, to the Punjab
farmers to adopt dry farming or to sow such crops as need less water.
It is like a robber advising his victim to make an economical use of
what is left with him.
Rajasthan was never riparian to the Punjab rivers and therefore had no
right to their waters. Haryana had become non-riparian to the Satluj,
the Beas and the Ravi, after reorganisation, just as Punjab had
become non-riparian to the Yamuna. When Punjab argued that if Haryana
got water from the Punjab rivers, it should get a share from the water
of Yamuna, it was told that it could not lay any claim to the Yamuna
water because it had become non-riparian after reorganization and that
Haryana was getting water from the Punjab rivers because of the
Reorganisation Act 1966.
Sardar pritam Singh Kumedan, a famous expert on Punjab river waters,
points out, “As per the Constitutional provisions, when states are
reorganized and new ones created, river waters are never divided,
because water is not a divisible asset and always goes with the land.
In 1953, the Godavari and the Krishna rivers and the Cauveri flowed
through the composite state of Madras. On the formation of Andhra
Pradesh in November 1953, Madras did not get a drop of water from the
Godavari and Krishna, as it ceased to be riparian of these rivers.
similarly, Andhra did not get any water from the Cauvery, as it ceased
to be its riparian. Water was not divided when Assam was separated
from Bengal in 1874; NWFP detached from Punjab in 1901; Bengal
partitioned in 1905 and reunited in 1912; Bihar- Orissa were separated
from Bengal in1912; Orissa separated from Bihar in 1936; Sind
separated from Bombay in 1936; Andhra formed in 1953; Gujarat and
Maharashtra formed out of Bombay in 1960; north-eastern states created
in 1972; and Jharkhand, Uttrakhand and Chhatisgarh formed in 2000.”
But consequent upon these divisions river waters were never divided.
None of the states of India is deprived of its river water. Punjab is
the only exception.
Another attempt at judicial redress was made in 1983. An organisation
of farmers filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Chief Justice S.S. Sandhawalia admitted the petition and fixed it to
be heard two days later, on November 25,1983, by a full bench headed
by himself. But the chief justice was transferred in the intervening
two days to the High Court of Bihar and the case, under the plea that
it was of great public importance, was shifted to Supreme Court in an
illegal manner. It was not heard of again and probably has been
withdrawn from the court under duress.
After enormous destruction and bloodshed, the Rajiv-Longowal accord
was signed in 1985, which stipulated the setting up of a tribunal to
decide the shares of Rajasthan and Haryana in the waters of Punjab and
the completion of S.Y.L. canal by Punjab. (The “Dharm Yudh Morcha”,
which resulted in horrible destruction and bloodshed, was initially
launched to stop this canal). Having his own political motives,
Longowal did not show any interest in saving the the waters of Punjab;
he rather lent legitimacy to the unconstitutional claims of Rajasthan
and Haryana. Surjit Singh Barnala, when he became chief minister, did
his utmost, in pursuance of this Accord, to complete the S.Y.L. canal.
He had constructed 90 per cent of its built portion in the Punjab when
the Sikh militants stopped work on it by killing a number of engineers
and workers.
Later, when Captain Amarinder Singh was the chief minister, the
supreme court, on a petition of Haryana, ordered that the S.Y.L.
canal in the Punjab territory should be completed by Punjab, and, if
Punjab does not do it , the Centre should assign this task to one of
its own agencies by 20 July 2004. This landed the Centre in a
difficult situation. If the construction of the canal was commenced it
might again cause a turmoil in Punjab where peace had been restored
after drastic efforts. But a trick was devised. The Centre drafted a
document terminating all past interstate agreements and sent it to the
Captain who called an emergency session of the state Assembly and got
it passed with the support of the Akalis. Then he, accompanied by
Parkash Singh Badal, went to the Governor who signed the document in
no time and it became The Punjab Agreements Termination Act 2004. The
Centre killed two birds with one stone. The construction of the canal
was avoided but a provision was made in article 5 of the Act that the
existing flow of water to Rajasthan and Haryana would continue
unaffected. Thus Captain Amarinder Singh stabbed Punjab in the back.
So far all the interstate agreements were made outside the state
Assembly and therefore had no legal or constitutional validity, but he
accorded legislative sanction the loot of the Punjab waters. It should
not be forgotten that Amarinder Singh had welcomed Indira Gandhi at
village Kapuri when she came there to inaugurate the S.Y.L. canal.
All the agreements and arrangements regarding the Punjab waters (which
include the 1955 inter state meeting decision, the 1976 notification
of the Irrigation Ministry of the government of India, the 1981
agreement involving chief minister Darbara Singh, Rajiv- Longowal
agreement of 1985 and the clauses 78, 79 and 80 of the Punjab
Reorganisation Act 1966) were made under duress of the Centre, are
malafide and void. Section 25 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872 says an
agreement without consideration is void and it has to be as per
Article 299 0f the Constitution. Helsinki rules, 1966, adopted by the
International Law Association, to which India is a signatory, hold
that “rivers belong to the state through which they pass.” According
to entry 17 of List-ii under Seventh Schedule of the Indian
Constitution, which pertains to waters, Punjab has the sole right to
the total waters of all its three rivers— the Satluj, the Beas and
the Ravi. And the Constitution lays down that only Punjab Legislative
Assembly has the exclusive power to make laws about Punjab waters. No
Chief minister, no Prime minister, no leader of any sort, not even the
Parliament of India has any such power. If the rulers have mala fide
intentions, there can be a hundred ways to bypass the Constitution.
Even othewise this noble document can be changed any time. The Indian
Constitution has been so far changed more than 100 times.
Whenever the leaders and officers of Punjab raise the issue of Punjab
waters or present their case before a tribunal or court, they never
assert that Rajasthan and Haryana have no right in the Punjab rivers
and, therefore, they must not get any water from these rivers. Rather,
they start with the assumption that the waters of Punjab are sharable.
They commit the blunder of making their case need-based in stead of
right-based. They only demand that Haryana should be given less water.
This is because, if the whole water allocated to Haryana has to be
carried to that state, the S.Y.L. canal has to be built. And to build
this canal in the present circumstances will be a suicidal job for the
Punjab leaders. If this canal is not built, 1.88 M.A.F. of water is
retained with Punjab. All the three or four cases, which are pending
with the Supreme Court, are about the Ravi and Beas waters, and they
are vis-a-vis Haryana. There is no mention of Rajasthan. If all these
cases are decided in favour of Punjab, it is exempted from giving 1.88
M.A.F. water to Haryana. It gains nothing more than this. No claim is
made on 11.2 M.A.F. water which has been given to Rajasthan and which
forms about 40 % of the total water of the three rivers of Punjab. It
seems that the governments of Punjab always get the guidance of the
Centre before taking any step.
Rajasthan and Haryana are robbing Punjab of 18200 crore rupees every
year by taking away 18200 cusecs of its water free of cost ( Rajasthan
11500 cusecs and Haryana 6700 cusecs). According to the Central Water
and Power Commission, the price of one cusec of water for a year
these days is one crore rupees.
This water , in the real sense, is the life-blood of Punjab which is
being drained away generation after generation. Two centuries ago, the
Sikhs secured their land against agelong aggressions and robberies
from the north; now they are faced with plundering from the south
which is more insidious and more lethal. If it is not ended, Punjab is
sure to be ruined. Its people will go in search of bread to other
regions where their sons will do humiliating jobs and their daughters
will work as house maids and face all types of illtreatment.
When Punjabi suba was being formed some of its opponents met Gulzari
Lal Nanda, who was determining the territories and controls of
resources of the upcoming state, and expressed their apprehensions.
Nanda is said to have reassured them that he would form such a Punjabi
Suba that the Sikhs would flee from it. Now anyone can see that his
intention has been fulfilled more than he could have hoped. The Sikhs
are selling their lands and seeking livelihood in foreign countries;
and those who are left behind are dying of cancer and other horrible
diseases. Gulzari Lal Nanda, wherever he is, must be gloating over the
success of his project. But it should not be forgotten that he was
only a cog in the machine which was manufactured in 1947 but whose
nature was determined centuries ago.
If the stolen water of Punjab is recovered, tubewells will not have to
be sunk, the ground water will not be depleted, enormous amounts of
diesel and electricity will be saved, thermal pants will not have to
be installed and concomitant pollution and diseases will not afflict
people. Punjab’s own electricity will be sufficient for its industry.
And Punjab will become a very rich state.
But the situation as it prevails today is that Punjab has been trapped
hopelessly. Its people may work as hard as possible and may start
living on one meal a day, but they will not be able to save
themselves. The noose which has been put around their neck will
continue to tighten. If this colossal injustice perpetrated on Punjab
is not remedied, only God knows what shape the consequences may take;
and they will be bad not only for Punjab but also for India.
The question arises why the Centre has this kind of attitude towards
Punjab alone.