Across the party lines, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator and leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Sunday expressed his faith in the Punjab chief minister (CM) Captain Amarinder Singh to safeguard the state’s precious water resources.
In an apparent reference to the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) issue, Khaira said CM had the ability to protect Punjab’s waters and ensure that its people are not deprived of this much-needed resource. He said, Punjab was already facing severe water crisis so the state does not have a single drop of water to spare. He added that the masses would not let the construction of SYL-canal get completed at any cost.
Speaking at the Bhog ceremony of Captain Amarinder’s mother Rajmata Mohinder Kaur, Khaira described the CM as a saint statesman, who had resigned from Parliament over the attack on Shri Harmandir Sahib and then from the Punjab Assembly in protest against Operation Black Thunder. “I backed the CM for his courage. It doesn’t mean that I will not raise any issue against him in the future. I will do my job as leader of opposition to raise anti-public issues,” Sukhpal Singh Khaira, told The Statesman.
Khaira said, Capt Amarinder had even earlier shown exemplary courage to save the state’s waters during his previous term as CM by passing the water agreements termination Act. He added that he was sure that Punjab CM would once again come to the rescue of state and its people.