CHANDIGARH: The long-pending Rs 15,624-crore Kishau Multipurpose Dam Project on the Tons River, a tributary of the Yamuna, is set to face a legal challenge, with the AAP-led Punjab Government preparing to move the Supreme Court against the Centre’s decision to proceed with the project without involving the state and reiterating its claim to a share of the Yamuna waters.
Sources in the Punjab Water Resources Department said that the plea to be submitted in the Supreme Court had already been vetted by a senior advocate, who previously served as the Advocate General of Punjab, as the office of the Advocate General had been asked to approve the draft plaint.
The larger argument of the state government is that the Yamuna, like the Ravi and the Beas rivers, was part of the erstwhile Punjab’s river system before the state’s reorganisation in 1966.
As Haryana is getting the waters of both Ravi and Beas as a successor state despite the fact that it is not a riparian state, Punjab should also similarly be considered a successor state for the purpose of getting water from the Yamuna, said sources.
Sources said that the state government contends that the project cannot be finalised based on the existing Yamuna water-sharing arrangement as the state itself was excluded from the 1994 agreement governing allocation of the river’s surface flow.
Also, the other contention is that the May 12, 1994, Yamuna water-sharing Memorandum of Understanding signed between Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan does not include Punjab.
An official in the Water Resources Department, on condition of anonymity, said that since 1992, Punjab has been requesting the Union Government to include it in all discussions on Yamuna water allocation, as the 1972 Irrigation Commission Report states that Punjab falls within the Yamuna basin.
Further, the officials of the department are of the view and argue that in 1954, Punjab was entitled to two-thirds of the Yamuna waters, but under the 1994 arrangement, the state was completely ignored. Thus, the Memorandum of Understanding cannot be treated as a final settlement, particularly as Clause 8 provides for a review after 2025. Thus, the allocation should now be reviewed and Punjab should get its legitimate share.
The state is expected to rely on the March 12, 1954, agreement between Punjab (before its reorganisation) and Uttar Pradesh, under which Punjab was entitled to two-thirds of the Yamuna waters. It argued that the reorganisation of Punjab could not automatically extinguish that entitlement.
On April 25 last year, the Punjab Government had lodged a complaint under Section 3 of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1957, with the Central Government, seeking the constitution of a tribunal to adjudicate its claim to the Yamuna waters. With no action having been taken on the complaint, the state is now considering judicial intervention.
It argues that the principle governing inter-state river water-sharing must be applied consistently — either the riparian principle or the successor-state principle — and that it cannot be selectively invoked to deny Punjab its claimed share of the Yamuna.
In the past, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has been reiterating that if non-riparian states can be allocated Punjab’s river waters, the state is equally entitled to the Yamuna waters.
The long-pending multipurpose project is expected to provide irrigation, electricity, drinking and industrial water and help rejuvenate the Yamuna. The project will now be placed before the Union Cabinet for approval.
The project is being implemented by Kishau Corporation Limited, a joint venture between the governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. The Centre recently assured Himachal Pradesh that it would not have to bear any financial burden for the project. The Centre will bear 90 per cent of the cost of its water component.
The project dates back to the Upper Yamuna Basin Water-Sharing Agreement signed by the basin states on May 12, 1994. The agreement provided for sharing the utilisable surface water of the Yamuna up to the Okhla Barrage and recognised the need for storage projects in the basin. It also provided for separate agreements for individual storage projects within the broader water-sharing framework.
The Kishau project will have a 232.6-metre-high concrete gravity dam and a reservoir with a live storage capacity of 1,562 million cubic metres (MCM).
The stored water is expected to provide irrigation benefits to nearly a lakh hectares of agricultural land. It will also augment drinking and industrial water supplies, with Delhi and Rajasthan among the key beneficiaries.
The project is expected to strengthen Delhi's long-term water security and provide additional water for drinking and industrial needs in Rajasthan.
The project is also expected to help rejuvenate the Yamuna by increasing the river's flow. The dam is expected to generate around 1,476 million units of electricity every year.
