Ravi and Beas tribunal gets another extension

NEW DELHI: The Ravi and Beas Waters Tribunal, India’s oldest water dispute tribunal that was constituted to adjudicate the water-sharing issue among Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, has got an extension of another year with effect from Aug 5, having failed to resolve the matter in more than 39 years.

The Ravi and Beas tribunal, set up in April 1986, is one of the five active tribunals in the country that continue to get extensions year after year.

The official notification for the purpose, made public on Friday, said that the Union govt considered it necessary to grant the tribunal a one-year extension keeping in view the exigencies of the work involved, as pointed out by the tribunal.

Though the tribunal had forwarded its report in 1987, the states concerned sought clarification on certain points under the provisions of Inter-State River Water Disputes (ISRWD) Act, 1956. The matter has been sub judice before the tribunal since then.

The tribunal’s final report would be vital to an amicable resolution of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue between Punjab and Haryana, as the canal dispute relates to sharing of Ravi and Beas river waters between the two states.

Besides the Ravi and Beas tribunal, four other tribunals have worked under extended timelines: Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal , constituted in Nov 2010 to adjudicate the dispute over river water sharing among Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka; Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal , the second oldest in India that was constituted in April 2004 to adjudicate water-sharing disputes among Maharashtra, Karnataka and erstwhile Andhra Pradesh; Vansadhara Water Disputes Tribunal for Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, constituted in Feb 2010; and the Mahanadi Water Disputes Tribunal, set up in Mar 2018, to adjudicate water-sharing disputes between Odisha and Chhattisgarh.