Taking strong exception to neighbouring Punjab Government’s decision to defy Supreme Court’s orders on Sutlej-Yamuna link (SYl) canal, an all party delegation led by Chief Minister Manohar lal on Monday met President Pranab Mukherjee urging him for implementation of the verdict at the earliest.
“President has assured to sympathetically consider Haryana’s appeal for implementation of the decision of the Supreme Court in the SYl Canal case,” said the Chief Minister, while interacting with mediapersons outside Rashtrapati Bhavan after the meeting.
Haryana should get its due share of water. The state is asking for its rightful share and not Punjab’s share, he said.
The Chief Minister said that while both states had been allotted equal share of 3.5 Million Acre Feet (MAF) water under the water sharing agreement, Haryana was getting only 1.62 MAF. Since 1981, Punjab has been utilising 1.88MAF water that rightfully belongs to Haryana. He said that the Supreme Court had already dismissed the proposal of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha to terminate the agreements.
The people has complete faith in the Constitution and the people of the state believed that Haryana would get its rightful share of water so that maximum foodgrains could be produced and they could get adequate drinking water, said he.
Ministers and leaders of other parties in the state also appealed to the President to consider favourably the interests of the people of the state. The delegation included senior Ministers of Haryana, Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala, State Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, leader of the Congress legislative Party, Kiran Choudhry, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state INlD president Ashok Arora, leader of opposition Abhay Singh Chautala, BSP MlA Tek Chand Sharma, independent MlA Jai Parkash, Advocate General Baldev Raj Mahajan and senior bureaucrats.
Haryana Shiromani Akali Dal chief Saranjit Singh Sotha, Shiromani Akali Dal SAD Balkaur Singh stayed away from the meeting. Talking to the mediapersons, former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the Punjab Government should be dismissed for refusing to accept SC directions on SYl issue. We will continue to fight for the interests of people of Haryana, which would get its water share from Punjab, he added. leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and INlD’s Abhay Singh Chautala however expressed apprehensions over the implementation of SC directions on SYl canal issue.
Chautala said that interests of the state of Haryana are being ignored and it seems that the SYl canal would not be completed by February 23. I have already announced that I along with the people of Haryana would dig up the SYl canal if the government fails to do so by February 23, said he.
Notably, an all party meeting held by Chief Minister on November 17 had decided to call on the President and Prime Minister urging them early implementation of SC’s decision on SYl canal completion.
The decision was taken a day after Punjab Assembly had passed a resolution against giving away any land for construction of the canal and resolving to make non-riparian states Rajasthan and Delhi to pay for using waters of Ravi and Beas.
Following the SC’s orders in favour of Haryana on SYl issue, the emotive water-sharing issue of the SYl canal has heightened the mutual animosity between the neighboring states of Punjab and Haryana. The SAD-BJP led Punjab Government has announced not to accept SC directions and not to “allow a single drop of water” to be taken from the State.