Taking a dig at the Opposition’s protest on the non-completion of Sutlej Yamuna link (SYl) canal, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar lal on Thursday said that the SYl only means “Satta Yu hi lunga” for the Opposition parties.
Manohar lal was replying to the debate on the Governor’s Address on the fourth day of the Budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.
A day after Indian National lok Dal’s ‘Kisan Aadhikar rally’ in the national capital on the issue of SYl canal, the Chief Minister appealed to the Opposition parties not to politicise the SYl issue and refrain from using it as a ladder to climb to power as the public is well aware of their political gimmics.
At the rally, leader of opposition and INlD’s senior leader, Abhay Chautala had threatened to launch “Jail Bharo Andolan” if the construction work of SYl canal is not started before May this year.
Hitting out at the INlD and Congress, Manohar lal said, “I would like to ask the then party in power as to why they did not get execution order from the SC despite the fact that the Apex Court had given judgment in favour of Haryana in 2002.”
In fact, it is due to the lackadaisical attitude of the then Haryana Government that the Punjab Government passed the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004 which was unconstitutional. As a result of this, the SYl issues remained pending in the SC for more than ten years, alleged he.
The Chief Minister further said the Congress remained in power for ten consecutive years both at Centre and in the state from 2004 to 2014 but did not make any efforts to secure the execution orders from the SC. But we are seriously fighting on this issue.
Following this, both INlD and Congress took strong exception to the Chief Minister’s statement and blamed the BJP for delaying the construction work of SYl canal.
“How can you question our seriousness on the SYl canal issueIJ” asked INlD’s Abhay Chautala.
Chautala also demanded that the CM should table his letter written to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue of SYl canal.
The Chief Minister then reiterated the resolve of his Government to get every single drop of its share in the river waters through the SYl, and also, offered to convene an all-party meeting to draw line of action on this issue.
As a result of the persistent efforts made by the present government, the Supreme Court had given its decision in favour of Haryana but the execution order was awaited from the court without which work on the canal could not be started. But INlD and Congress are only doing politics of SYl canal, he added.
The Chief Minister’s reply on Governor’s address witnessed heated exchanges of words between treasury benches and opposition legislators on the issue of SYl canal, farmers’ compensation, CM’s announcements, law and order situation, recruitments and power bills. The INlD legislators also staged a walkout from the House expressing dissatisfaction over the reply of Chief Minister.
Regarding the Dadupur Nalvi Canal, Manohar lal said amendment in the Act was expected soon and thereafter, farmers wanting back the land they gave for the project would be able to do so. The land which would not be taken back by the farmers would be utilized by the Irrigation Department for various projects as per requirement, he added. He also informed the House that a meeting would be held between officers of the Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments next month to resolve various issues concerning irrigation.
On the issue of law and order situation, he said that rape incidents are not happening due to Government’s failure and there is also a need to change the mindset in the society. Referring to rape cases in previous years, he said that 516 incidents of rape were registered in 2012 and 923 in 2013 under Congress regime. In 2013, it recorded 78 percent rise and only the government can not be blamed for this increase, he added.
During the debate on Governor’s address, the opposition- INlD and Congress -had attacked the State Government over the increase in rape cases, gangrapes, kidnapping, eve teasing, thefts, murders in the state during the last three years.
On dealing with the rise in cases of heinous crimes against women, Manohar lal said that the government is taking initiatives to strengthen the police infrastructure and curb crime incidents in Haryana.
He also mentioned Jat agitation 2016 during which more than 30 people had died in the state. At this, Congress MlA Karan Dalal Singh blamed the BJP Government for mishandling of situation during Jat agitation.
This led to angry reactions from the treasury benches with Haryana Ministers Capt. Abhimanyu and Manish Grover blaming former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, his close aide Professor Virender Singh and Congress party for violence and arson during Jat agitation.
Earlier, the Chief Minister also hit out at the opposition for making statements on Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki’s decision to not read his entire speech during the address on the first day of the budget session on Monday.
“Many Governors had done it in the past when they did not read their entire speeches. But the opposition made this an issue and this was an insult to Governor,” he added. On his announcements made in 90 assembly constituencies, Manohar lal said that 4583 announcements have been made since October 2014 and out of these, about 3550 announcements have either been implemented or are in advance stages of implementation.
To this, Abhay Chautala demanded that a record on CM’s announcements should be tabled in State Assembly.
Responding to Chautala, the Chief Minister accepted his demand and assured that all details will be tabled in the House.