SC orders status quo on SYL cal land

New Delhi, Nov 30: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered status quo on land acquired for the construction of the Sutlej-Yamu Link cal’s stretch in Punjab and appointed the Union Home Secretary, Punjab’s Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police as receivers. A bench of Justice Piki Chandra Ghose and Justice Amitava Roy, however, made it clear that the receivers are only for the purposes of submitting a report on the ground situation. The court order came on a plea by the Harya government that sought status quo ante in the wake of Punjab government’s decision to denotify the acquired land and restoring it to origil owners.

The Supreme Court had given its verdict on a Presidential reference on November 10 to hold as unconstitutiol the Punjab Termition of Agreements Act, 2004, passed by the state assembly.

Following this, the Punjab government had de-notified nearly 5,000 acres of land acquired for the cal.

On November 16, The Punjab assembly directed the state government, its Council of Ministers and government officers and officials not to hand over land to any agency for the cal’s construction. The assembly resolved that the Punjab government should levy a cost on Harya, Rajasthan and Delhi for the water supplied to non-riparian states over the past many years. (IANS)