SYL: Badal to file review petition

VIKAS KAHOL

CHANDIGARH, JANUARY 18: The Punjab government has decided to file a review petition over the Supreme Court’s decision on the SYL issue. Advocate General of Punjab H.S. Mattewal said the government was already preparing a draft of the review petition and it would be ready in about three weeks.

The state will also file a separate writ petition challenging specific parts of the Punjab Reorganisation Act and the Inter-State Water Disputes Act as well as the award of the Ravi Beas Water Tribunal, in SC.

‘‘Punjab will try to have the water shares of its rivers determined on the principles of distribution and allocation between riparian states,’’ he said. Riparian states are those states through which a river flows. He added that this would be possible only if the matter was adjudicated afresh without the fetters imposed by certain previous Acts.

Meanwhile, sources close to the Punjab Chief Minister said that the Punjab Advocate General had submitted before the CM that the river water issue had been badly handled in 1976 and 1987 and held that the Rajiv-Longowal Accord signed on July 27, 1985 had not recognised all the claims of Punjab as per riparian law.