A day after the Centre blamed Punjab Government for not cooperating in resolving the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue before the Supreme Court, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday expressed his willingness to attend any meeting in the matter, before making it clear that the Centre was required to step in.
Mann, who was accompanying Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal in a party event at Hisar, said that he has no objection or hesitation in meeting with his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar over the SYL canal dispute.
“I am ready for a meeting. I don’t have any objection to it...But as Arvind ji said that the Centre must resolve this problem instead of getting both (Chief Ministers) to sit for the meeting and after that let both give statements outside the meeting venue. As the head of the state in Punjab, I am ready to go for the meeting. Let the Haryana chief minister come for the meeting. We will hold the talks,” he said, while responding to the media queries.
Notably, Kejriwal has strategically put the ball in the Centre’s court when the media questioned him regarding his and the party’s stand over the SYL issue in the poll-bound state of Haryana. Kejriwal has asked the Centre to find the solution to the problem as both the sister-states — Punjab and Haryana — need water.
Mann added, “The Central Government imposes a lot of things on the states. It should meet the water requirements of Punjab and Haryana too. Haryana is the younger brother and Punjab is the elder brother. Instead of pitching us against each other, they should find some solution.”
Fresh wrangling among the two states over the decades-old SYL canal dispute began from Tuesday with the Supreme Court asking Punjab Chief Minister to meet his Haryana counterpart to reach an “amicable” solution on the issue. The Centre’s Jal Shakti Ministry will organise the meeting.
Attorney General of India KK Venugopal had informed the Apex Court that Mann has not responded to Khattar’s invitations for a meeting. He cited a letter, given to Mann on April 4, to which he has not responded.
The contentious SYL is a 214-km long canal for sharing the waters of the Ravi and Beas rivers between Haryana and Punjab. The issue first surfaced when Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966.