Karan Bir Singh Sidhu, IAS (Retd.), former Special Chief Secretary, Punjab, writes on the intersection of constitutional probity, due process, and democratic supremacy.
An Open Letter to the Prime Minister of India
Subject: In the wake of the floods—towards a fair water settlement for Punjab and a dignified quietus to old wounds
Hon’ble Prime Minister Sir,
This monsoon has once again shown us the face of hardship in Punjab. According to The Tribune, as of today, 23 lives have been lost and more than 1,018 villages devastated by flooding in the State. We have lost livestock, homes, and harvests. Families have stood in shoulder-deep water, saving children and elders with little more than courage and neighbourly good sense. Our district officials, engineers, linemen and sarpanches are working around the clock; our embankments, distributaries, and rural roads are scarred. Punjab faces the floods first and pays the heaviest human cost—year after year.
Immediate rescue must now be matched by full relief, compensation and final settlement—well beyond the normal and meagre national and State disaster funds. We request 100 percent compensation for movable and immovable property, crops and livestock losses, fully funded by the Government of India. Punjab’s finances are deeply stretched; the State cannot carry this burden alone. The repair of embankments, canals and rural infrastructure must be borne by the Government of India, treating this as a national calamity.
While what we request is a matter of urgency, there are also other important issues that need to be flagged, and these floods provide the appropriate moment for us to bring them to your kind notice for immediate action.
1) Riparian fairness—with a clear line on 1 November 1966
The reorganisation of Punjab in 1966 created new political boundaries. It did not change river courses, headworks, floodplains or the burden of spate. Riparian principles ought to govern water, and in Punjab’s case they should be read with one bright-line: rights over assets created after 1 November 1966 cannot accrue to non-riparian States. Control and benefit must follow geography and responsibility. This is not an argument against equity; it is a plea for honest equity—the kind that recognises who holds the embankments when the river rises at night, and who pays when they fail.
2) Water is an economic asset—price it fairly or compensate Punjab
Water, like electricity, is an asset with real costs: construction, operation, safety, desiltation, flood repair, and the incalculable human toll when things go wrong. If non-riparian States—including Rajasthan—receive water through assets and routes for which Punjab bears risk and upkeep, they must pay a reasonable, transparent price. Where their fiscal capacity is limited, the Government of India should compensate Punjab for the difference. Anything less reduces Punjab to a subsidising conduit that fixes breaches, cremates its dead, and then watches its water leave without fair value.
3) A humane flood compact—Union-funded relief for people, shared costs for assets
Prime Minister Sir, we request an executive flood compact for Punjab that delivers justice to people and fairness in rebuilding:
100 percent Union-funded compensation for verified household, livelihood and farm losses—including movable and immovable property, livestock, farm machinery and standing crops (at MSP or notified rates)—with interim assistance within 7 days and final settlements within 60 days.
Full Union responsibility for infrastructure: repair of embankments, canals, distributaries and rural roads—treated not as a State expense but as a national calamity cost.
A uniform national relief grid so families are not trapped in paperwork; and a public dashboard for transparency in claims and disbursals.
4) Yamuna arrangements—parity, observer status, and consistency since 1966
Punjab was historically riparian along the Yamuna Nagar–Jagadhri belt before 1966. Yet when the settlement on Yamuna waters was negotiated and finally mediated among the concerned States, Punjab was not accorded even observer status. If our pre-1966 riparianhood is treated as irrelevant in the Yamuna context, parity demands that post-1966 non-riparian status be respected elsewhere. By the same token, Haryana—being non-riparian to the eastern rivers after 1 November 1966—cannot claim rights over assets on the Ravi, Beas and Sutlej created after that date. One cannot deny Punjab a seat at the table on the Yamuna and simultaneously endorse claims by a non-riparian on post-1966 eastern-river assets.
We do not seek to disturb settled Yamuna shares. We ask for observer status and full data access in Upper Yamuna fora for flood-warning and conservation planning, and for a clear Union policy that aligns rights over post-1966 assets with riparian status, with fair pricing (or Union compensation) for any water delivered to non-riparian beneficiaries.
5) Groundwater truth—get off the pump-and-pray treadmill
Not more than 27 percent of Punjab’s irrigation comes from canal irrigation; the vast remainder is pumped from a sinking aquifer. If canals are the arteries, our aquifer is the heart—and it is failing. Any national settlement must therefore give Punjab assured, predictable canal supplies where they are most needed, with modern controls that deliver water to the tail-end farmer, not just the head. Otherwise, we merely push Punjab deeper into pump-debt and power-debt while telling it to be grateful.
6) SYL—let blood and water not flow together
Sutlej–Yamuna Link (SYL) is not a dry engineering debate for Punjab; it is a wound. “Blood and water cannot flow together.” You yourself have stated so in the context of the Indus Waters Treaty and the grief of terror violence, including the Pahalgam massacre. In Punjab, too, SYL has a painful history; we have seen bloodshed earlier, and thankfully peace has returned. Let us not scratch old wounds. In the national interest and for social harmony, SYL deserves a dignified, final quietus.
7) The Indus Waters Treaty—use what is ours, conserve what we store
Within the Indus Waters Treaty framework, India enjoys rights over the eastern rivers—Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Those rights are meaningful only if we conserve, store, and responsibly use what our geography and topography grant us. We urge a Prime Minister-led push to:
Prioritise safe completion and modernisation of projects that stabilise the Ravi–Beas–Sutlej system.
Protect ecological flows so rivers live even in lean months.
Build sensible storage and recharge so that furious floods are converted into banked security for the dry season.
Plan and execute projects to transfer surplus waters from the Chenab and Jhelum basins to Punjab, given that the topography of Jammu & Kashmir does not allow much scope for additional irrigation, whereas Punjab can beneficially use these flows for both irrigation and recharge.
This is not about reopening treaties; it is about making full, responsible use of what is already our sovereign right.
8) What we respectfully request your Government to do—now
Announce a Riparian Fairness Policy that recognises 1 November 1966 as the cut-off for post-reorganisation assets: non-riparian States cannot claim rights over assets created thereafter.
Notify fair-pricing for inter-State water to non-riparian recipients, with a Union-funded compensation window where necessary, so Punjab is made whole for the service it renders and the risk it bears.
Adopt the humane flood compact above—100 percent Union-funded compensation for people’s losses in Punjab, and full Union responsibility for embankments, canals and rural infrastructure as a national calamity.
Provide observer status and data access to Punjab in Upper Yamuna fora to improve flood-warning and conservation planning, and adopt a parity-based policy on post-1966 assets.
Lead a mission to “conserve what we store” on the eastern rivers—finish, upgrade and maintain storages and hydropower with the discipline we apply to national highways; protect environmental flows; build recharge works that turn spate into security.
Give SYL a dignified quietus—replace confrontation with cooperation: canal modernisation, tail-end assurance, groundwater recovery, and fair pricing as the four pillars of peace.
Hon’ble Prime Minister Sir, we are not asking for indulgence. We are asking for justice that remembers geography, honours loss, and allows us to look our children in the eye when the river rises again. In this hour—when the waters have still not fully receded—there is an opening for healing decisions that only you can make. Give us riparian fairness, flood justice, and a peaceful settlement. Help us conserve and preserve the sovereign water and hydropower assets that nature placed in our keeping.
With respectful regards,
Karan Bir Singh Sidhu
Retired IAS (Punjab Cadre) • Former Special Chief Secretary, Government of Punjab
Chandigarh