Akali Dal leaders face water cannons on SYL canal debate with CM

Chandigarh, Oct 10 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) senior leadership and youth volunteers on Tuesday faced police and water cannons in their bid to approach the Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's residence to hold a debate on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal as well as other burning issues concerning the state.

SAD President Sukhbir Badal led from the front and also addressed party workers on the road when party leaders were prevented from approaching the Chief Minister’s residence. He said it was condemnable that the Chief Minister had chosen to flee Punjab rather than debate his betrayal on the SYL canal with SAD.

Party workers placed an empty chair with the Chief Minister’s name on the vehicle to show how Mann "had run away" from the debate.

Badal said “the Chief Minister challenged me to a debate on the SYL which I accepted and even announced that I would come to his residence today to debate all facets of the case. I thought the Chief Minister will receive us in the same manner in which former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal used to meet protesters coming to his residence, including Mann and the AAP leadership.

"But he (Mann) chose to flee to Madhya Pradesh with Arvind Kejriwal rather than facing me and SAD."

Asserting that water was a natural resource for Punjab just like coal was that for Chhattisgarh and marble for Rajasthan, Badal said that "this resource has been taken away from us unilaterally by successive Congress governments from 1955 when half of our river waters was given to Rajasthan and then in 1976 when another half of the remaining water was given to Haryana".

He said former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had tried to correct this injustice by filing a case in the apex court challenging Article 78 of the Reorganisation Act which bestowed power to the Central government to allocate water resources to the new states. “However, in 1981, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi prevailed upon (then Punjab Chief Minister) Darbara Singh to withdraw this case from the Supreme Court and agree to construction of the SYL canal which was subsequently ceremoniously inaugurated by Indira Gandhi in 1982."

Asserting that AAP was following the line taken by the Congress, Badal said “The AAP is readying to give more of the state’s river waters to Haryana and Rajasthan to derive political advantage in the forthcoming Assembly elections."

He said the Chief Minister admitted as such during a hearing on the SYL case in the Supreme Court. The Punjab government expressed its willingness to give water to Haryana but for protests from the opposition and issue of acquisition of land for the SYL whose land was returned back to farmers by Parkash Singh Badal in 2016.