Punjab government is demanding water money from Rajasthan, what is the agreement on the basis of which settlement of Rs 1.44 lakh crore will be made?

Punjab Rajasthan Water Agreement: Punjab government will ask for water money from Rajasthan, the amount of which is around Rs 1.44 lakh crore. According to the Punjab government, according to an agreement, Rajasthan used to pay royalty in exchange for water from Punjab, but since 1960, Rajasthan stopped doing so. Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has said that Rajasthan should either pay the dues of Punjab or stop taking water.

The Chief Minister said that a tripartite agreement was signed in 1920, under which Rajasthan had to pay royalty for the use of water received from Punjab. According to him, Rajasthan paid till 1960, but after that the amount was not given. He said that the British government, the Maharaja of Bahawalpur (now Pakistan) and Bikaner were involved in this agreement. At present Rajasthan is taking about 18,000 cusecs of water through feeder. CM has also raised the demand for review of this old agreement.

What is this agreement?

When there was famine in Rajasthan. Then Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner decided to bring Sutlej water to Bikaner. After which a tripartite agreement was reached and it was decided to build a long canal of about 150 kilometers in Rajasthan. In the year 1925, the foundation stone of Firozpur to Bikaner Canal (Gang Canal) was laid. Which was prepared at a cost of about Rs 5.5 crore at that time. According to reports, in 1920, an agreement was signed between Bikaner State, Punjab under British rule and Bahawalpur State, on the basis of which this canal was built. Under this agreement, Bikaner paid Punjab royalty or usage charges according to the area of ​​irrigated land. This was a commercial agreement and payments continued until about 1960.

Why did Rajasthan stop royalty?

In fact, when the Indus Water Agreement was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960, India got complete control of Sutlej, Ravi and Beas rivers. After which India started distributing water in a new way. In which this canal was also included. It is said that this was the time when water was distributed to overcome famine in many states and the royalty based system had ended and after that Rajasthan had stopped giving money.

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Tripartite agreement also reached in 1981

Then came the year 1981 when a tripartite agreement was signed between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Which had the support of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Under this agreement, the water of Ravi and Beas rivers was divided and Rajasthan was also given a share, even though it is not a state situated on the banks of these rivers, but this water was transported to the Thar Desert through canals. Later in 2004, under the leadership of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Punjab tried to terminate the agreements by implementing the ‘Punjab Termination of Agreement Act’, but the Supreme Court rejected it and restored the old system.