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The most important thing in the world today is water. Punjab, the land of five rivers, has today reached the verge of becoming a desert. Ground water has almost been exhausted in 11 out of total 138 blocks of Punjab. NASA has made it clear that Punjab has only a few years of water left. Now the question is not whether Punjab will become a desert or not, now the question is how much time is left for all this. Punjabis do not know what is going to happen to them. The land of five rivers will become a desert, how did this happen? To understand this puzzle we will have to go back 75-76 years. This destruction started in Punjab as soon as it got independence as per the master plan of plundering the rivers of Punjab. Before 1947, water used to go out of Punjab. He used to go from Firozpur to Bikaner (Rajasthan) via canal. This canal used to go out of Punjab.
That water was not free. The king of Bikaner used to give money. Punjab continued to receive their money till 1947. The first thing the Indian government did after 1947 was to make the water going to Bikaner (Rajasthan) free. Not only this, the preparation of the master plan for linking the rivers of Punjab started in 1950 during the time of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, although its blueprint was ready in 1948 but its work completely started in 1950. Gulzari Lal Nanda was then the Minister of Energy and Irrigation in the Central Government. He was also the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. Two major projects were carried out under his supervision, one of which was the Bhakra Nangal project and the other was the Beas project. For which he constructed the Beas-Sutlej Link Canal. Pandoh Dam was built near Mandi in Himachal Pradesh with the water of Beas. A 12 kilometer long tunnel was dug from there. Then there is an open channel (open canal) for 20 km till Sundernagar through which water was transported. Next to the said canal, there is a 12 km long tunnel till Sutlej. This is all the water of Sutlej and Beas which has been stopped by the Bhakra Dam. Then this water goes out of Punjab through paved canals. This is the Bhakra Main Line, which was opened in 1954. Water from this canal goes to Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan. Sutlej is a river in name only. Water comes into it when there is flood or water is released from Bhakra Dam. By digging Madhopur Ravi-Beas Link Canal in Pathankot, the water of Ravi River was diverted into Beas River. Apart from this, a little above Firozpur is Harike Pattan, where a dam was built where the Beas and Sutlej meet. Water from Ravi, Beas and Sutlej was stopped at Harike. Two permanent canals were laid from Harike to Rajasthan. One in 1953 and the other in 1961, Indira Gandhi Canal, which carries water from Punjab to Jaisalmer. The Government of India had placed before the World Bank a demand for the construction of two permanent canals from Harike to irrigate the Thar Desert of Rajasthan. The World Bank said, “This is a waste of Punjab as well as water.” Despite his rejection of this proposal, these canals were built.
This 650 km long canal goes till the deserts of Bikaner and Jaisalmer. When the demand for creation of Punjabi state was accepted after a long struggle, the central government again placed the waters of the rivers of Punjab under its jurisdiction. What is clear is that Punjab cannot dig a single needle without Delhi's approval. More than 75.5% of the total water of Punjab has been snatched away by the Central Government from Punjab and handed over to other states, that too for free. Out of the total 17 million acre feet of water of Punjab, only 4.22 million acre feet of water is left for Punjab. That means less than a quarter. There is no compromise, no consensus in Punjab, Indira Gandhi just issued a decree. Giani Zail Singh was the Chief Minister of Punjab at the time when on 24 March 1974, the Government of India looted more than 75% of the water of Punjab and ruined Punjab. Punjab has started extracting groundwater to meet the needs of its crops and is giving its water to other states for free. Punjab currently requires 79 million acre feet of water, out of which 54 million acre feet of water is used for agriculture, 10 million acre feet of water is used to meet the needs of cities and 5 million acre feet of water is used for our businesses. Is done for. One million acre feet of water means that one million acres is filled with one thousand giga liters of water.
If the water of the total rivers of Punjab is calculated, then even half of our annual requirement is not met. Now see that the farmers who get canal water pay for it. Punjab's own water is going to other states. That too at a time when Punjab is yearning for rain. With this push of Indira Gandhi, the resolution of Sri Anandpur Sahib was born. On one hand the water of Punjab is going to outside states, on the other hand the farmers of Punjab are forced to extract underground water with motors and submersible pumps. At present there are 15 to 20 lakh tube wells in Punjab. There are very few areas in the world like Punjab which have been blessed with water by nature. Earlier the groundwater level existed at a depth of 20-25 feet which has been tapped by wells and hand taps. The first layer of water in the land of Punjab has been exhausted long ago. If we do not understand then Punjab will run out of water.