Politics causes wastage of Sutlej waters: Ex-chief engineer

HISAR: If politics is taken out of the project, the SYL canal is a national asset as the waters can help contribute more grain to the country’s food storage besides reviving the agrarian sector in Haryana, observed CB Singh Sheoran, a former chief engineer of the Irrigation Department.

Former Chief Engineer CB Singh Sheoran

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, March 23

If politics is taken out of the project, the SYL canal is a national asset as the waters can help contribute more grain to the country’s food storage besides reviving the agrarian sector in Haryana, observed CB Singh Sheoran, a former chief engineer of the Irrigation Department.

Sheoran, who was associated with the SYL project in the past, told The Tribune that there was no dispute when it was conceived and implemented.

An all-party delegation of Haryana is scheduled to meet the Union Home minister on Friday to press for construction of the canal.

“Haryana claims a share of 3.6 Million Acre Feet (MAF) Sutlej water. However, around 3 MAF water is available presently. So, give us as much water is available,” he said while explaining that presently, Haryana was getting 1.6 MAF of this water. “Though Anandpur Sahib Hydel Channel, which carries Sutlej water and releases it into the SYL, carries around 3 MAF – and even more during rainy season – as Sutlej is a perennial river. However, remaining water (1.4 MAF) which is being denied to Haryana is reverted to Sutlej from Lohand Khand via a channel. Thus, all this water go waste without being utilised for irrigation either in Haryana or in Punjab,” he claimed.

He said that a green revolution would begin in south Haryana once the water arrived there. He said that the Rajiv-Longowal accord was an honest effort towards its completion, but opposition leaders for the sake of politics raked it up.

Sheoran said that Punjab didn’t need Sutlej water except in June for rice transplantation in the Bathinda area only. “Farmers opt for tubewell-based irrigation in Punjab as electricity for agriculture comes free of cost. Except Bathinda, the entire Punjab has adequate groundwater. The canal-based irrigation system doesn’t even exist there,” he said.

He said: “Punjab is not dependent of the SYL waters, but in Haryana, this water has utility even if it arrives for a day,” he said, adding that Punjab’s claim on the Yamuna water, which is not a perennial river, was not admitted till now in any tribunal.