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A day after controversy erupted over AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta’s assertions of giving water to Haryana through the contentious Satlej Yamuna Link canal, Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Wednesday issued a statement in defence making clear AAP’s stand that not a single drop of water from Punjab would be allowed to flow to another state.
Cheema, in a video message, said that Punjab has the sole right over its waters. “Not a single drop of water would be allowed to flow out. We are ready to make any sacrifice for preserving the riparian rights of Punjab.”
He said: “I am surprised that the parties that are now raising the issue are the ones who let the issue build up during their successive turns in the government. They know how to play politics on this sensitive issue.”
Cheema maintained that AAP-led Punjab government was making several schemed for the conservation of groundwater and also to stop water pollution.
At the same time, Cheema blamed the Congress and SAD for Punjab’s precarious financial situation saying that had the fiscal position been better, everyone in Punjab would get free power
Meanwhile, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked AAP national convener not to play politics on the sensitive issue of SYL canal, asking Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to urge Kejriwal to withdraw the “guarantee” given on this issue to the people of Haryana.
Sukhbir, talking to newsmen at Gurdwara Rakabganj in Delhi, said AAP had again started befooling Punjabis in its age-old tradition. “Punjab Finance Minister has now announced that the State’s river waters would not flow into Haryana, even as a Rajya Sabha MP had given a guarantee on behalf of Kejriwal in Haryana that water from the SYL canal would irrigate each and every field in the State,” he added.
Asserting that this insidious conduct of AAP had the potential to inflame sentiments in the entire region, Sukhbir said that Chief Minister’s continued silence on the issue was being read as a weakness by Punjabis. “If Mann does not step in and ask Kejriwal to withdraw the guarantee given by his party to the people of Haryana, he should be prepared to face the angst of Punjabis who will not allow one drop of water to flow into Haryana from the SYL canal,” he added.
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