Amarinder Singh said Punjab and Haryana have had several rounds of discussions. (File)
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said that he hopes the contentious Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue will be resolved through talks between Punjab and Haryana, within the timeframe set by the Supreme Court. He said that the two states were already engaged in dialogue and several rounds of talks have already happened. .
Mr Singh said that the two states will take the process of dialogue further and resolved the issue within the four-month timeframe set by the Supreme Court, Mr Singh said in response to a question.
On September 3, the Supreme Court had given four more months to Punjab, Haryana and the Centre to find a solution to the SYL canal issue. In the last hearing in July, the top court had asked the Chief Ministers of both the states to form committee to resolve the issue with the Centre's mediation.
Mr Singh has maintained that Punjab would have no problem in sharing water if it had enough of the vital resource.
However, the meetings between officials of Punjab and Haryana governments on SYL canal issue remained inconclusive with both states sticking to their stands.
Punjab has said that the amount of water flowing through Ravi and Beas rivers had come down considerably and therefore it sought the waters' volume.
Haryana has been asking for completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet of the river waters. It had also asserted that Punjab should comply with the 2002 and 2004 Supreme Court orders for the completion of SYL canal for bringing its share of Ravi-Beas waters. Presently, it is getting 1.62 million acre feet (MAF) of Ravi-Beas waters.