CHANDIGARH, Punjab—Reacting to the Supreme Court’s verdict against Punjab on SYL-Canal issue, the Punjab government today denotified the land acquired for SYL-Canal with immediate effect. The owners of the land are now able to acquire their land without paying any charge for it. The Punjab government is keen to complete all the procedures to denotify land to its owners.
According to sources, the Punjab Council of Ministers presided by Chief Minister Parkash Badal, today gave assent to denotify the land acquired for SYL-Canal project in Punjab province.
It may be recalled here that the Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) led state government of Punjab had earlier passed a bill in the Punjab assembly to denotify the land acquired for the SYL-Canal project. But the Punjab government didn’t succeed in getting the bill passed by the then governor of Punjab, Kaptan Singh Solanki who had taken additional charge of Punjab, besides Haryana. The bill was immediately challenged by the Haryana government in the Supreme Court and the Apex court had decided to maintain status quo on the SYL-Canal dispute.
Now, with denotification orders issued by Punjab government the Union government of India is likely to take over the contentious SYL-Canal project.
It is being speculated that the central government might deploy paramilitary forces to stop the breaking of the agreement on river waters sharing by Punjab.
