Punjab has demanded royalty from Haryana for water used from Sutlej and Beas rivers.
While the river water dispute between Punjab and Haryana has not been resolved for the past 40 years, the states have now
locked horns over water royalty.
Punjab has demanded royalty from Haryana for water used from Sutlej and Beas rivers. Chief minister Parkash Singh Badal also wants Rajasthan and Delhi to pay. “Like minerals, river water is an asset of Punjab and any use of it by other states should be accounted for in terms of money,” Badal said.
“Water is a natural resource for Punjab, like Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand have coal mines, Rajasthan has marble and several other states have iron ores. They are all charging royalty for mining,” he said.
“If these states can take royalty, why is Punjab being denied its right to royalty for water?” the chief minister said.
Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda ridiculed Badal for seeking royalty and said, “Instead, Punjab should pay us royalty on river waters it did not give us.”
Haryana irrigation minister Ajay Singh Yadav took strong exception to Badal’s “unconstitutional” demand, saying the “comment is politically motivated for gaining cheap popularity and it is irresponsible”.
He said Badal had no legal right to seek royalty on water. If such demands are met, Himachal would seek royalty from Punjab, Haryana from Delhi and this way there would be chaos at the national level, he said.
Meanwhile, Badal has called an all-party meeting
to evolve consensus on the matter. Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, leader of opposition in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha, confirmed the SAD-BJP government in the state was considering holding an all-party meeting on the issue.
She said she got a call from the chief minister’s principal secretary in this regard.
“We have called a meeting of members of the Congress legislature party and Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee on June 21. We will clarify our stand on the issue after the meeting,” Bhattal said.
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