All India Kisan Congress president Sukhpal Singh Khaira on Wednesday cautioned Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann against making any compromises on the issue of Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal at the behest of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
“Scarcity of water and unfair pricing of crops have landed Punjab farmers under a colossal debt of Rs one lakh crore, leading to too many suicides. Therefore, we will never allow a single drop of SYL water to flow to Haryana,” Khaira said.
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In a statement issued here ahead of the proposed October 14 meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar, the Congress legislator from Bholath said that his apprehensions were based on Kejriwal’s repeated statements suggesting that Haryana should also get water from Punjab to which Mann did not seem to have any problem.
Khaira said that the AAP Member of Parliament and in-charge of Haryana Sushil Gupta had claimed that since the AAP government was already in Punjab, it would ensure that the SYL water flowed into Haryana as well.
The Congress MLA asked Mann to take a cue from the Congress government when it repealed all water sharing agreements with other states in 2004 to save Punjab’s precious waters. Otherwise, he warned, most of Punjab would go dry and turn barren.
Khaira said that Kejriwal is hell bent on pressurizing Mann into surrendering our rights over the SYL to Haryana in view of the Assembly elections in the neighboring state in 2024.
He said after forming the government in Punjab through his mischievous slogan of ‘Badlav’ (change), Kejriwal is aiming to form the government in Haryana by exploiting the issue of our precious river waters which we will never be allowed at any cost.
Asserting that under the Riparian laws, Haryana or no other state had any right over Punjab’s water, Khaira said: “Punjab outrightly rejects Kejriwal’s suggestion to divide SYL water between Punjab and Haryana as the state is already short of river water and 14 lakh tube wells have led to depletion in ground water level by alarming proportions.”
