Union Jal Shakti Minister Shekhawat to meet Haryana, Punjab CMs amid SYL row

Union Jal Shakti Minister to hold meeting with Haryana & Punjab CM's to address long-standing Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal issue.

Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat will be holding a meeting with Chief Ministers of Haryana and Punjab here on Thursday, December 28, 2023, on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue.

According to a Haryana government statement on Wednesday, Mr. Shekhawat will hold the meeting to address the long-standing Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (SYL) issue.

The SYL canal issue has been a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana for the past several years.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann will be attending the meeting, it said.

Mr. Lal had recently written a letter to Mr. Mann and had expressed readiness to hold a meeting to resolve any obstacles or issues related to the SYL canal’s construction.

Mr. Mann too had earlier this month said that he would attend the meeting, but asserted that the State has no spare water to share with any other State.

The canal was conceptualised for effective sharing of water between the two States from the Ravi and Beas rivers. The project envisages a 214-kilometre canal, of which a 122-kilometre stretch is to be constructed in Punjab and the remaining 92 kilometres in Haryana.