New Delhi, July 22: Faced with a raging inter-state row following the Punjab law annulling all river water sharing agreements with neighbouring states, the Centre today referred the controversial measure to the Supreme Court looking for a legal solution.
President A P J Abdul Kalam referred the Punjab termination of Agreements Act, 2004 to the apex court under Article 143 of the Constitution seeking its opinion on its validity.
The Centre's move comes ten days after the Punjab Assembly passed the law that has been stoutly opposed by Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh which had asked the Centre to take immediate steps to dissolve the crisis.
The Union government had on July 15 approached the Supreme Court for fresh directions on the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal following Punjab's unilateral decision to scrap its river water sharing agreements with neighbouring states.
Earlier, on June 4, the court had asked the Centre to take over the construction of Punjab portion of the canal as the state government continuously showed reluctance to do it. Through its application filed in the court, the Centre had sought fresh directions in the case as completion of the SYL Canal had become difficult in view of the new Punjab law.
Soon after the Union government asked the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to take up the construction work of the canal, the Punjab government, which had already approached the apex court for review of its June 4 order, got enacted the law scrapping all its agreements with neighbouring states
on sharing of river water.
On June 4, the apex court had asked the Centre to immediately take up construction of the Punjab portion of Sutlej-Yamuna link canal rejecting Amarinder Singh government's plea for review of an earlier directive of the court for completition of the canal.
Bureau Report
