Claiming that he would not let even a single drop of water to leave Punjab, the state Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh on Sunday said that he was ready to go to jail in the Sutlej-Yamuna-link (SYl) canal issue.
“I am prepared to go behind bars, I will defy any orders to save Punjab’s waters,” he said at a meeting of ex-servicemen in Jalandhar.
Capt Amarinder accused the Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for the SYl “mess” and asked people to help his party win by two-third majority in order to take tough decisions in Punjab’s interest.
Stating that the State was short of water he claimed that during re-organisation, Punjab got 60 per cent land but only 40 per cent water as Yamuna river’s water was not shared by Haryana. “If the canal is constructed, around 10 lakh acres in southern Punjab would go dry. A Congress Government will prevent this by bringing in tough legislations through a majority in the Assembly,” he claimed.
Expressing dismay at the “step-motherly treatment” meted out to ex-servicemen by the Centre, Capt Amarinder alleged that even after such a long time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government had failed to support ex-servicemen in the OROP (one-rank, one pension) issue.
The Modi Government and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar have been subjecting the Defence services to all kind of humiliation through Pay Commission anomalies and degradation of army ranks below civilian ones among other things, he alleged.
Underpinning the need to bring ex-servicemen into the mainstream, he said his ‘Guardians of Governance’ scheme will provide employment to retired soldiers and utilise their services to ensure stringent implementation all welfare schemes.
Touching upon other problems afflicting Punjab, Capt Amarinder claimed that unemployment coupled with “Badal-patronised drug mafia had pushed the youth into a quagmire of destruction”. The Congress will end the drug menace in the State within four weeks of forming Government, he declared.
Accusing the Badal Government for “promoting communal polarisation by encouraging incidents of sacrilege,” he underlined the need to divert police personnel from “wasteful” VVIP duties and deploy them to maintain law and order in Punjab.