Punjab-Haryana SYL Canal Dispute Reignited: A First-Hand Video Account from 2016-17 after Supreme Court Verdict

A contemporaneous and autobiographical account of the tense few days of mid-November, 2016 when courage, intellect and tenacity of a few helped Punjab to salvage an honorable draw, from jaws of defeat

SYL Canal in Fatehgarh Sahib district.

SYL Canal Dispute: A First-Hand Account from the Canal Front

By Karan Bir Singh Sidhu, Retired IAS Officer & Former Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Punjab

A Fresh Flashpoint in a Longstanding Dispute

The long-standing and sensitive inter-state river waters dispute between Punjab and Haryana, which has historically pivoted around the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, has been reignited following a contentious, unsustainable and untenable decision by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) at its meeting on 1st May 2025. This comes barely days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared India’s decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty signed with Pakistan in 1960, in the immediate aftermath of the Pahalgam massacre of 26 April 2025. The BBMB’s decision allocated an additional 1850 cusecs of water to Haryana, despite the fact that the state had already exceeded 104% of its annual quota. This was done in blatant disregard of established norms, and over the strong objections of Punjab’s official representative.

The SYL Shadow Returns

Tensions had already escalated when a junior political functionary from Haryana, a few days earlier, publicly announced Haryana’s plan to puncture the Bhakra Reservoir (Ranjit Sagar) upstream in Himachal Pradesh, with the intention of constructing a new link canal to divert Satluj waters directly to Yamunanagar district in Haryana. The project is being projected as a cultural and emotional initiative to revive the ancient Saraswati river, which is revered by many Indians.

However, this announcement is widely viewed as a thinly veiled attempt to conceptualise Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal-II, igniting deep concern in Punjab. The timing and rhetoric strongly suggested a politically calculated provocation by the BJP-led Haryana Government, reopening a historically volatile issue.

Legal Status Ignored, Deafening Silence

This move comes even as the original SYL Canal litigation remains pending before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, with a status quo order still in effect. Of equal concern is the conspicuous silence of the Haryana Chief Minister, the BJP central leadership, and the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, all of whom have failed to distance themselves from the inflammatory declaration. Or, to deny that there is no such proposal even under consideration.

Rare Political Consensus in Punjab

In a rare show of political unity, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann convened an all-party meeting at Chandigarh on 2nd May, where leaders across party lines unanimously condemned the BBMB’s decision and the provocative statements emanating from Haryana. They jointly declared that Punjab does not have even a single drop of water to spare, firmly rejecting the additional allocation as unjust and unsustainable.

Misperceptions About Punjab's Water Availability

Leaders stressed that, contrary to popular perception and misleading media narratives portraying Punjab as water-rich, the reality is starkly different. Only about 27% of Punjab’s irrigated area is canal-fed, while the remaining 73% depends on tubewells, which are rapidly depleting the state’s already fragile and precarious groundwater resources.

Vidhan Sabha Special Session Summoned

In continuation of this united stand, the Punjab Government has convened a special session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha on Monday, 5th May 2025, to exclusively deliberate upon the issue and formulate a decisive strategy.

Meanwhile, Haryana is reportedly preparing to hold a similar meeting, indicating that the matter may intensify in the inter-state political and legal arenas.

The Supreme Court’s 2016 Ruling that Shook Punjab

Although the Punjab-Haryana water dispute has a long and contentious history, a decisive turning point came on 10th November 2016, when a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India unanimously declared the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, to be unconstitutional, in response to a Presidential Reference. This landmark judgment, delivered just ahead of the February 2017 Punjab Assembly elections, dramatically raised the spectre of Punjab being legally compelled to resume construction of the SYL Canal—an act that would have been politically untenable, if not suicidal, for any leadership in power, especially those occupying the highest offices in the state.

A Bureaucrat’s Innovation and Initiative That Changed the Course and Granted a Reprieve

At this critical juncture, in mid-November 2016, I, Karan Bir Singh Sidhu, then serving as Financial Commissioner (Revenue), Punjab, advised the State Government to issue a strategically crafted notification. My direct responsibility for land acquisition matters, combined with my prior posting in the Punjab Irrigation Department during 2012–13, before proceeding on central deputation, had given me a deep understanding of the administrative nuances, legal frameworks, and the politically charged nature of the SYL issue. This unique confluence of experience enabled me to appreciate the stakes—not merely legal, but deeply emotional and historical—that the canal represented for Punjab.

Amid a climate of fear, where senior legal experts, including the Advocate General, and top bureaucrats of the Irrigation Department had no viable solution to offer and were warning that any proactive move might amount to contempt of the apex court and land us in Tihar Jail, it became imperative to act with clarity, precision, and constitutional propriety. Seizing a narrow legal and constitutional window, I proposed a course of action that would lawfully circumvent the Supreme Court’s status quo order, thereby stalling further construction without breaching any judicial directive—a delicate but essential manoeuvre that ultimately gave Punjab not just a temporary respite, but a reprieve that continues till today.

A Weekend That Made History

Over the course of a single weekend, immediately following the Supreme Court’s verdict, the entire Revenue Department apparatus—including Divisional Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Tehsildars, Naib Tehsildars, Kanungos, and Patwaris—was mobilised on a literal war-footing to enter and sanction over 4,000 land mutations (intqals). This massive operation successfully restored proprietary rights in the canal project lands, compulsorily acquired by the Punjab Government in 1986-87, to their original owners or legal heirs—free of cost.

This unprecedented administrative feat not only reaffirmed the Punjab Government’s commitment to justice and fairness but also preserved Punjab’s sovereign control over its waters. It stands today as a model of lawful, responsive, and mission-driven governance under extraordinary circumstances.

The then Revenue Minister, Bikram Singh Majithia, played a key enabling role in facilitating this historic administrative response and deserves due recognition.

A Video Record in the Public Domain

Within weeks of my retirement from the Indian Administrative Service in July 2021, after 37 years of service, I recorded a comprehensive video in Punjabi, which I uploaded to YouTube, offering a candid and detailed first-person account of how Punjab averted a potentially irreversible loss of its water rights.

I invite you to watch this video—not to draw attention to my own role, for I was merely discharging my duty to my beloved Punjab—but because it is a story that every concerned Punjabi, policymaker, and student of federal water governance ought to understand in full.

Moreover, any political leader—regardless of stature or party affiliation—who is genuinely committed to safeguarding Punjab’s interests and is searching for practical cues and credible strategies to defend the state's rights through solid, lawful, and administrative measures, rather than indulging in the usual political rhetoric and cacophonous statements that generate more heat than light, must watch this short yet comprehensive half-hour video.

You may click here [insert link] to view it. I remain available to address any specific queries or clarifications via email (kbs.sidhu@gmail.com), WhatsApp, or Substack comments, in the spirit of transparency, civic responsibility, and inter-generational public interest.

I am also leaving, as a footnote, a link to an article I published on The KBS Chronicle in October 2023, captioned “Exorcising the SYL Ghost: Charting a Path Forward for Punjab's Waters”, which you may like to peruse to gain additional perspectives.