New Delhi, July 22
Shiromani Akali Dal today threatened to launch an agitation if the interests of Punjab are violated in the SYL canal issue.

Talking to The Tribune, after submitting a memorandum to the President, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, on the SYL issue, SAD president Parkash Singh Badal said “Water is a life and death issue for an agrarian state like Punjab and we will launch an agitation if the interests are violated.”

Mr Badal led a delegation to the President to urge him not to refer the SYL canal issue to the Supreme Court.

“You may refer (SYL) issues to the Union Law Ministry and Attorney General of India, in addition to other legal luminaries before referring the matter to the Supreme Court,” the SAD memorandum submitted to the President said.

Such a move, it said “would not only expedite an early and equitable solution to the vexed problem but also ensure that the matter is dealt with in a dispassionate and constructive atmosphere.”

Seeking the intervention of the President in resolving the vexed issue, SAD said so that the whole issue could be dealt with purely on constitutional merit.

It said the Centre had no authority to set up a river water tribunal expect where two riparian states fail to reach an agreement. Since neither Haryana nor Rajasthan is a riparian state to the rivers Sutlej, Ravi and Beas, “any tribunal set up to distribute waters of these rivers between Punjab and other states is unconstitutional.”

The memorandum said Section 78 of the Punjab Re-organisation Act, 1966, “is truly the villain of the piece and this distortion needs to be rectified.”

The Act guaranteed more water to Haryana and Rajasthan, neither of which is riparian to the rivers, Sutlej, Ravi and Beas than to the riparian state of Punjab.

Stating that the action of the state legislature in passing the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, was valid, the memorandum said the statue makes river waters as state subject and this clearly means that only state legislatures have the sovereign jurisdiction to legislate on matters concerning river waters.

“This authority of the state legislature is not subservient to any act or order of the Centre or even of Parliament,” it said.

The SAD leaders informed the President that the Indo-Pak River Water Treaty, 1955, does not bind India to a position where it has to violate the Riparian principle in dealing with its internal river water disputes.

Claiming that only Punjab had sole sovereignty over its waters, the memorandum said Tamil Nadu ceased to be a riparian state when Andhra Pradesh was carved out and the three rivers Godawari, Krishna and Cauvery fell there.

Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal rejected Rajasthan’s petition to be made a party along with Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh on the grounds that Narmada did not flow through desert state.

Earlier in the day, SAD leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought his intervention in the water row so that the issue could be decided afresh by the Supreme Court or a tribunal.

“All the old water agreements which Punjab has with other states should be scrapped and either the Supreme Court or a new tribunal should decide who should be given how much water,” Akali Dal General Secretary Sukhbir Badal told reporters here after meeting the Prime Minister.

“What we are demanding is justice for Punjab. Punjab does not have surplus water. And if our water is taken away, Punjab will become a desert,” he said.