Panjab Demands USD 15.41B Water Dues from Rajasthan

March

2026

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal called for a judicial probe into the status of the USD 1.34B State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) ‘to ascertain how the money was misappropriated’. The MP said crops across 400K acres of land were destroyed in Panjab in the 2025 floods, following which the union government announced compensation to farmers, which it said was not distributed and lying with the state under the SDRF head. Meanwhile, the Panjab government demanded royalty from neighboring Rajasthan for water supplied for its irrigation and drinking needs, claiming an outstanding amount of USD 15.41B. Chief Minister (CM) Bhagwant Mann said, ‘Under the 1920 agreement, 18K cusecs of Panjab’s water was supplied to Rajasthan continuously till 1960. However, after the Indus Waters Treaty, there was no mention of this arrangement. If we calculate dues from 1960 to 2026, Rajasthan owes Panjab the money.’ He further added that the Rajasthan government has not paid ‘even a single paisa for the past six decades’. Refuting such claims, a senior Rajasthan official said the state is a partner in the project and has also contributed its share of the financial expenditure for building the irrigation system. Questioning the basis of Panjab’s demand, the official added that the issue is already under consideration before an inter-state water dispute tribunal. However, this is not the first time this issue is being raised. Panjab's foremost expert on river water issues, Late Pritam Singh Kumedan, had in 2009 computed that while 10.6 MAF of water flowed to Rajasthan, Panjab had incurred a cost of USD 8.56B to extract the same amount of subsoil water to meet its irrigation needs. In 2009, he also wrote to the then SAD CM Parkash Singh Badal to raise the USD 8.56B demand with Rajasthan. Additionally, Union Health Minister JP Nadda said that funds to the tune of USD 61.3M have been released to Panjab during 2025–26 under the National Health Mission (NHM). Panjab has received over USD 248.62M crore from the union government under NHM between 2021–26 (earlier coverage).