After a series of protests seeking Haryana’s share of water from neighbouring Punjab through the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, THE state’s principal Opposition party, the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), has once again threatened to protest on the controversial issue.
Addressing a Press conference, INLD legislator and Leader of the Opposition in Haryana Assembly, Abhay Singh Chautala, announced that his party would hold a massive rally in Delhi on 7 March 2018.
Accusing the Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana of failing on many fronts, he said the INLD remained committed to using all constitutional means in its struggle to get the legitimate share of river water through the SYL canal.
Chautala said, “It is regretted that neither the state nor the Union government has demonstrated the will to have the Supreme Court verdict implemented in this regard. Even more regrettable is the fact that the Prime Minister has remained unresponsive to the requests of INLD to seek an appointment. Even on this momentous issue the CM of Haryana has not been able muster courage to make an effort to meet the Prime Minister. In view of this, after a series of protests, the INLD has now decided to hold a massive rally at Ram Lila Maidan, Delhi on March 7.”
Chautala also slammed the BJP government for its efforts to take credit for declaring tractors as transport vehicles by amending the Motor Vehicles Act, 1989, and said that it was due to the timely intervention of the INLD delegation led by him which had two meetings with the Union Surface Transport minister Nitin Gadkari drawing attention towards the sensitive issue. Terming the Khattar government as “anti-farmer”, Chautala said by scrapp ing the Dadupur-Nalvi canal project and denotifying the land that had already been acquired for the purpose, the state government has proved its anti-farmer agenda.
The decades-old contentious issue between the two states again hit the headlines when the Supreme Court on 10 November 2016, held as unconstitutional the 2004 Punjab Termination of Agreements Act passed by the Punjab State Legislative Assembly to terminate the SYL canal water sharing agreement with Haryana.
Tension escalated further when the Punjab cabinet decided to return the land acquired for the SYL canal project to its owners by de-notifying the acquired land with immediate effect.
Since then the INLD has been raising the issue. Dozens of its leaders were arrested on the Punjab border when they were heading towards the neighbouring state to dig up