A day after Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann lashed out at the opposition over the contentious Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue during a “debate”, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader to show the letters former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal allegedly wrote to the Centre asking it to go ahead with the SYL’s construction when he was in jail while protesting against the Emergency or apologize forthwith.
“It is clear that the Chief Minister uttered a blatant lie in his official capacity during the so-called debate on SYL and other issues in Ludhiana. AAP Government should substantiate this allegation or apologize for trying to tarnish the image of the former Chief Minister,” said SAD legal wing president Arshdeep Singh Kler.
Stating that this was not the only lie the Chief Minister uttered a day before, Kler said: “Bhagwant Mann claimed that Badal had, in a quid pro quo with Haryana, increased the height of the Bhakra Main Line (BML) in return for creation of a minor canal to take water to his land in Balasar village in Haryana…This was furthest from the truth…The Bani canal, which takes water to Balasar and ahead to other areas, is part of the BML irrigation system and came up in 1955 while the height of the BML was raised to accommodate for silting in 1998.”
Kler also condemned Mann for admitting that he had written letters to his Rajasthan and Haryana counterparts asking them if they needed more water from Punjab. “The mandate for water regulation was with BBMB and not Punjab Government…It is clear that these letters were written with the motive of showcasing them in the forthcoming assembly elections in Rajasthan and Haryana in line with AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s guarantee to release more Punjab waters to the two States,” he said.
SAD legal wing president also castigated the chief minister for twisting facts and claiming credit for closing several routes of bus companies owned by the Badal family. The truth was that this decision had been taken by the Supreme Court and Punjab Government bus routes had also been closed, he added.
Deriding AAP spokesperson Malwinder Singh Kang for demanding one document to prove that AAP government had betrayed Punjab on the SYL issue, Kler released four documents on the occasion — including the recent submission by AAP Government that it wanted to make the SYL canal but for protests from the opposition as well as the return of the SYL land to farmers by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Kler also played audio recordings of AAP’s Punjab MP Sandeep Pathak in which the latter batted for ensuring supply of SYL waters to Haryana, Kejriwal’s statement that he stood for Haryana’s right to SYL waters, and AAP Haryana president Sushil Aggarwal’s statement that the party would ensure SYL waters reached each every corner of Haryana in case the party was voted to power in the State in 2024.
