Raking up the raging river water dispute, Punjab’s unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has demanded that the Punjab government should levy royalties on river water being supplied to Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan.

The state is locked in a dispute with neighbouring Haryana for construction of 214-km Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, whose construction was suspended in 1990. While the Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Haryana for construction of the canal, Punjab has rued that it will end up facing serious ecological crisis due to depletion of ground water.

Leading a sit-in protest outside the Punjab Secretariat, Leader of Opposition, Sukhpal Khaira and other MLAs, including Vice-President Aman Arora, demanded that the government should put into effect the resolution passed in the Punjab Assembly and seek royalties from the neighboring states.

“As a riparian state, we urge Punjab government to levy royalties on neighbouring Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi which are being provided water from Satluj river for decades,” said Leader of Opposition, Sukhpal Singh Khaira. The AAP MLAs contended that the government can send the bills to the Delhi government to begin with, where CM Arvind Kejriwal is likely to agree.

However, the demands were dismissed by cabinet minister Tript Rajinder Bajwa. “If we seek royalties from other states, then we will also have to pay royalty to Himachal Pradesh, which is actually providing river water to Punjab. The water is coming from HP. A decision cannot be taken like this,” said Bajwa, highlighting that such problems needed a long-term solution.