New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said on Wednesday that extra water from the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) will be sent to the neighbouring Haryana.

After holding a meeting with his Haryana counterpart Nayab Singh Saini, chaired by Union Jal Shakti Minister C.R. Paatil here, on the contentious issue of the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, Mann told the media, “Today we had a very positive meeting with Minister of Jal Shakti, C.R. Patil, and Haryana CM on the SYL project.”

“This matter has been pending in the Supreme Court for a long time. We had a detailed and good discussion. Since the Indus Water Treaty has been held in abeyance, we can receive water from the Chenab and Ravi rivers in Pong Dam, Ranjeet Sagar Dam, and Bhakra Nangal Dam. If we get water from there, since Punjab is the channel, why will we have a problem giving way to that water further?

“I have urged C.R. Patil that if we get 13 MAF (million acre feet) of water from there, we will use some of it and send the rest to Haryana.”

The SYL Canal, which was to link two major rivers (Sutlej and Yamuna) in the country’s leading foodgrain states, Punjab and Haryana, was planned, and major portions of it were even completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs

750 crore at that time.

But it now remains entangled in a political and legal quagmire with both states adamant in their stands and unprepared to accommodate the other to the detriment of the people, particularly farmers, of both states.

Responding to the media query, Haryana CM Saini said, “Meaningful discussions took place in the direction of Haryana’s interests.”

Union Minister Paatil called the meeting, the fourth in a series, to resolve the issue between the two states as directed by the Supreme Court, which will next hear the case on August 13.

Punjab CM Mann said the two Chief Ministers would meet again with the Jal Shakti Minister on August 5 and finalise the statement to be made on the SYL issue in the apex court, which in May asked the Jal Shakti Minister to resolve the issue between the warring states.

–IANS

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