Making an appeal to the Punjabis to ‘gherao’ central teams wishing to conduct a survey of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal land in Punjab, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday maintained that it was ready for any sacrifice but would not allow the SYL canal to come up in the State.
Senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia also asked both the AAP government as well as the State unit of the Punjab BJP to clarify their stand on the proposed survey which was to be conducted by the Central Government. He also condemned both the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well as Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar for maintaining a deafening silence on such an important issue which concerned the very future of Punjab and its farmers.
He also asked the Punjab BJP chief to officially tell the Central Government to desist from conducting any survey to identify land for the SYL.
Asserting that there was no need for any survey, Majithia said “Former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has returned more than 4,500 acres of land acquired for the SYL canal back to the 21,000 original owners free of cost.” Similarly, “there is no water to give with 109 out of 128 blocks in the State turning into dark zones due to severe depletion of ground water”, he added.
AAP Govt presented a weak argument in SC on SYL: Bajwa
The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Punjab Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday condemned the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab Government in the strongest possible terms for surrendering Punjab's rights on its river water during the recent Supreme Court hearing.
Bajwa said that at the hearing in the SC, the counsel for the Punjab government blamed the delay on pressure from the opposition and problems acquiring land from farmers. “With such an insincere and apathetic argument, AAP government wants to convey that they are willing to construct the SYL canal and give water to Haryana but the farmers and opposition parties do not let them do that,” he added.