Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) Dispute

The Sutlej and Yamuna rivers will be linked by the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal (SYL), which is currently under development.
The long-running controversy over the canal, which is meant to transport water from Punjab to Haryana, began with a dispute over the distribution of water from the Ravi-Beas.
In Punjab, the rivers Beas and Sutlej merge.
After the reorganisation of Punjab in 1966 and the creation of the state of Haryana, a disagreement over the sharing of river water arose (out of Punjab).
Following this, Punjab refused to allow Haryana to share the waters of the Ravi and Beas.

Reason for Dispute

Before the reorganisation in 1955, the Center had allotted 8 MAF to Rajasthan, 7.20 MAF to the undivided Punjab, and 0.65 MAF to Jammu and Kashmir out of the 15.85 million acre feet (MAF) of water from the Ravi and Beas.

When the Punjab Reorganisation Act was put into effect in March 1976, the Center announced new allocations and gave Haryana 3.5 MAF.

The water level going down the Beas and Ravi was later recalculated in 1981 and judged to be 17.17 MAF. From this, 4.22 MAF, 3.5 MAF, and 8.6 MAF were given to Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan, respectively.

A canal connecting the Sutlej with the Western Yamuna Canal was envisioned in order to allow Haryana to utilise its fair share of the Sutlej river’s and its tributary, Beas, waters. The 212-km SYL canal was designed to transport Haryana’s proportion of water to the state’s southern regions.

Punjab was to receive 122 km of the canal, and Haryana would receive the final 90 km. While Punjab has been delaying the construction for more than three decades, Haryana has finished its portion of the canal.

The Punjab canal was required to be finished by orders from the Supreme Court in 2002 and 2004.

A statute invalidating all interstate agreements pertaining to the sharing of the waters of the Ravi and Beas was passed by the Punjab assembly in 2004.

However, the Supreme Court struck down (cancelled) this law in 2016.