DW BUREAU / chandigarh SAD president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal on Monday warned the Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh against "any overt or covert agreement that compromises the vital interests of the state on the river waters issue," adding that the river waters are the life-stream of the people of the border state, especially its farmers. In a statement here, Badal assured the CM that the SAD would rise above all political considerations and extend full and whole hearted support to him as long as he stuck to Punjab's long-held and constitutionally valid stand based on the Riparian Principle. "We will fully back your efforts to safeguard the interests of the state along the nationally and internationally accepted Riparian principle. There is no case of the construction of the SYL as there is no water available to flow through it. Punjab is the only state where a canal is sought to be constructed without reference to the availability of river water for it," said the SAD president. The statement of the SAD president assumes significance as it comes on the eve of a meeting the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana are scheduled to be held on the issue of SYL following Supreme Court advice in this direction. Badal said that the issue of river water distribution and the center's powers to adjudicate on it form a part of the pleas which former Chief Minister Sardar Parkash Singh Badal has moved before the apex court, challenging the relevant provisions of the Punjab Re-organisation Act 1966. Badal also categorically declared that Punjab had "not a single drop of water to spare for anyone and in fact, we are in the midst of severe water crisis with rapidly falling water table in 85 per cent of the blocks of the state." The Akali president said that Punjab was the only state in the country, and possibly the only region in the world where the Riparian Principle has been violated. "Nowhere else in the world would you see the river waters being denied to the people of a region through which the concerned river or rivers pass. Punjab is the only unfortunate state on the globe where such gross injustice has been committed and continues to be committed." He said that already, massive injustice had been done to the state by the denial of its legitimate and constitutional rights both on the issue of river waters as well as on the territorial issue including the denial of its capital city, Chandigarh. He asked the CM to stand firm on the Riparian principle. "We will lend him total and unconditional support in doing so." (editor@dailyworld.in)