Indian National lok Dal, Haryana’s main Opposition party, is gearing up for its proposed protest on March 15 in the national Capital on the issue of Sutlej Yamuna link (SYl) canal.
leader of Opposition in Haryana Assembly and INlD’s senior leader Abhay Singh Chautala has announced to gherao the Parliament on March 15 and also, protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital on the same day on SYl issue.
The party will continue its fight for the SYl canal issue till Haryana gets its due share of water from Punjab, said the INlD leader while asking his party workers to get ready for the protest.
Ever since its creation in 1966, Haryana has been engaged in a dispute over sharing of river waters with Punjab.
The SYl is a proposed 214-km long canal to connect Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. Since it relates to water sharing between Punjab and Haryana, the two States have been fighting over it and the matter is now before the Supreme Court.
Given the ongoing political uproar over SYl canal issue in the two neighbouring States, Haryana Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki had also given priority to the SYl issue taking it up in the beginning during his address in the recently concluded budget session of the State Assembly
Notably, two MPs, 18 legislators and 73 other INlD leaders were arrested on February 23 by the Punjab Police and were later sent to judicial custody till February 27 by a court in Rajpura and lodged in Patiala jail. They were arrested for breaching prohibitory orders on Feb 23 when they were marching towards Punjab to undertake the digging of the SYl canal.
Though INlD’s much — hyped call for digging the SYl canal in Punjab ended without success, the party had raised the SYl issue in the Budget
session.
Chautala had also invited both the BJP and Congress leaders to join INlD to gherao Parliament and protest at Jantar Mantar on March 15 on the SYl issue.