Farmer protest fuels hope on contentious SYL canal issue

BY VISHAL GULATI

Chandigarh, Dec 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) For decades, the contentious issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal has prevented a link between Punjab and Haryana farmers.

Now the farmers protesting against the farm Bills believe the issue of the SYL canal is deliberately being introduced and raked up time and again by the politicians to build up a 'rift' all in the name of agriculturists.

The visible political 'wedge' follows a latest directive of the Supreme Court, asking the Chief Ministers to both food-bowl states to attempt a negotiated settlement of the issue that has defied any solution for decades despite several rounds of litigation.

"For decades, politicians of both Punjab and Haryana have tried to create a rift between on the SYL issue to reach at the helm," octogenarian farmer Gurdev Singh, who is camping at the protest site on the Singhu border, told IANS.

He said the protests against the new farm laws that is set to destroy the livelihood of all farmers, irrespective of the state one belongs to, have brought them together.

Gurdev Singh, who farms a small plot of land in Punjab's Ferozepur district, said when they were breaking barricades and facing teargas shells on Haryana border, "our brothers from Haryana stood with us and helped our entry".

Echoing similar sentiments, farmer Naresh Kadiyan from Haryana's Jind district said, "Punjab is our elder brother and will remain so in future."

"There is no bitterness over the SYL issue. If it is there, it will be forgotten by now. Thanks to this agitation for fostering camaraderie between Punjabi and Haryanvi brothers," he said in his jovial mood and patting the back of Gurdev Singh, who was sitting beside him.

Currently, thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana have been camping at Singhu and Tikri borders, both on the Haryana side, for 18 days after rejecting the Centre's offer to move to Burari in Delhi.

The root of the SYL canal problem is the controversial water-sharing agreement of 1981 after Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966.

Several farmers from Punjab and Haryana say the protests against the farm laws helps in exposing the unholy political conspiracy to divide the farmers.

The SYL canal is an issue of vote bank, not related to the farmers, remarked Onkar Chand Yadav from Karnal district in Haryana.

"Look they are making tea for everyone and our brothers from nearby villages are ensuring regular supply of milk, vegetables and other ration items for them as they are our guests here," said Yadav, while pointing towards a makeshift kitchen set up by the farmers from Punjab at the protest site.

Added Gurcharan Kaur, who is camping at the protest site along with her daughters-in-law and grandchildren and running a round-the-clock community kitchen, "Our Haryana brothers and sisters have legitimate claim over the SYL as their farms are struggling for a drop of water. We will ensure they will get their due rightful share of water and that too without any delay."

Ramesh Singh, a marginal farmer from Haryana's Rewari district, said for the last four decades he has been tilling the parched land. "I hope this solidarity will renew and strengthen the bond that will, of course, help in resolving the contentious issues like the SYL canal."

"Even for drinking, we have to buy the water as the groundwater is not fit for human consumption. If we don't get the SYL canal share even now, it will be another black chapter in the state's history," an emotional Singh, 72, added.

Trying to create a 'rift', Haryana's Agriculture Minister Jai Parkash Dalal this month told the protesting farmers from the state that the issue of the SYL canal was more important than anything else.

"If there is no water, there will be no crop, and if there is no crop, what will the farmers do with MSP (minimum support price)?" he said, while pointing out that the Supreme Court had already decided in Haryana's favour.

For the allocation of water, the SYL canal, which is to link two major rivers -- the Sutlej and the Yamuna -- in Punjab and Haryana, is to be constructed. Major portions of the canal were completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs 750 crore at that time.

But till date it remains entangled in a political and legal quagmire with both states adamant on their stand.

Punjab, the land of five rivers, is adamant that it will not share a single drop of water with Haryana or any other state.

In August at the meeting convened by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat to work out a solution to the SYL issue on the directions of the Supreme Court, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh warned the Centre that "Punjab will burn" if the state was forced to share water with Haryana.

"You have to look at the issue from the national security perspective. If you decide to go ahead with the SYL canal, Punjab will burn and it will become a national problem, with Haryana and Rajasthan also suffering the impact," he had said.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)

Source: IANS