Chandigarh, March 3 Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema criticized the BJP government in Haryana on Tuesday over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue, saying that its recently presented budget did not allocate any funds for the project, considering the 2027 elections in the border state.
His statement is being seen as a rebuttal to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini's frequent visits to Punjab and presenting his model of governance to the people of the neighboring state as a viable alternative to the AAP's model of governance.
The opposition parties in Haryana – the Congress and INLD – claimed that there was no mention of taking over the state's share of SYL water from Punjab in the budget.
Responding to a question on the SYL canal issue on Tuesday, Cheema said, "Every year, they (the Haryana government) allocate funds for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal. But this year, they did not, in the context of the 2027 assembly elections in Punjab."
"I think they will clarify that they have closed the SYL chapter. I think they will leave the claim over the SYL in the Supreme Court and the meetings of state committees," the Punjab minister said.
The SYL canal issue has been a major point of contention between the two states.
The Punjab government has maintained that the state has no surplus water for others and is demanding its legitimate share of the Indus waters. On the other hand, the Haryana government has been demanding its share of river waters, which, it asserts, has not been getting due to the non-construction of the SYL canal.
Last May, the Supreme Court directed the two states to cooperate with the Centre for an amicable solution to the decades-old dispute over the canal.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Nayab Singh Saini discussed the SYL canal issue on January 27.
During that meeting, Mann had asserted that his government stands committed to safeguarding the state's interests in the water dispute, while pursuing a mutually agreed resolution of the SYL canal issue.
Amid no consensus in the meeting on the contentious issues, both the chief ministers had then decided that the officers of both states would deliberate on this issue and would brief them on its progress.
The SYL canal was conceptualized for the effective sharing of water between the two states from the Ravi and Beas rivers. The project envisages a 214-kilometer canal, of which 122 km was to be constructed in Punjab and the remaining 92 km in Haryana.
Haryana has completed the project in its territory, but Punjab, which launched the work in 1982, has shelved it.
