Punjab's canal network is one of the largest contiguous irrigation systems in the world. On the Indian side the main systems are the Upper Bari Doab from Madhopur, the Sirhind system from Ropar, the Bhakra main line, the Bist Doab canal and the Ferozepur and Sidhwan feeders.
A canal system is a hierarchy: main canal, branch, distributary, minor, and then the watercourse to the field, with a fixed rotation called warabandi that gives each farm a set number of minutes per week at the outlet.
Warabandi is administered by the irrigation department and by the farmers themselves, and stealing water by breaking a bund or blocking an outlet is one of the commonest causes of rural violence in Punjab.
Tail-end farmers get less than head-end farmers, always. That is a physical property of the system and every canal in Punjab has a tail with a grievance.
Canal irrigation has been declining as a share of Punjab's watering, replaced by tubewells, which is exactly backwards from what the aquifer requires. Canal revival is now official policy.
The Upper Bari Doab, the Sirhind, the Western Yamuna and the later Bhakra system between them made Punjab the most heavily irrigated tract in India.
Water is delivered on warabandi, a fixed rotation measured in minutes per acre, calculated from the outlet down. The system is designed to spread scarcity fairly rather than to deliver on demand.
Canal irrigation as a share of the total has fallen for fifty years while tubewell irrigation has risen. The canals still run and the water table falls anyway, which is the whole problem in one sentence.