Opposition parties in Punjab on Friday attacked the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), especially the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, for not presenting the state's case in his meeting with his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar on the issue of SYL canal.
Accusing Mann of surrendering his authority to the Prime Minister on the SYL issue, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that it amounted to surrendering your authority to someone else. “That is why we had urged him to take everyone into confidence,” he said, while adding that Mann’s stand should have been simple and straight that Punjab does not have any water to spare to give to anyone else.
Warring asked the Chief Minister as to for what purpose he wanted to approach the Prime Minister. “Suppose the Prime Minister asks you to share our water with Haryana, will you do that?” he asked.
Warring said, the Chief Minister by suggesting to refer the matter to the Prime Minister, whatever reasons (he) may give for that, amounts to complete surrender of Punjab’s authority in the matter to the Centre.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president and former Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said that Punjab had an inalienable and exclusive right over its river waters as per the nationally and internationally accepted Riparian Principle and “Chief Minister should have stressed this instead of awarding Haryana the status of an equal partner and initiating negotiations on the SYL canal with his Haryana counterpart”.
“It is shocking that Bhagwant Mann has fallen into the trap laid by Haryana by initiating talks to check the availability of water…This is done despite the fact that Haryana did not have any locus standi in the case of being a non-riparian State. The Chief Minister also did not take into consideration that if Punjab and Haryana availability is less, it will result in a proportionate cut in everyone’s share but not stop the flow of water into Haryana,” he said.
Lambasting Mann for presenting Punjab’s case most shabbily, Sukhbir also took umbrage to Punjab Advocate-General’s claim in the Chief Minister’s presence that “if we have water, we will consider construction of the SYL”.