CHANDIGARH (Bindu Singh) : President All India Kisan Congress and Bholath MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira today cautioned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann against making any compromises on the issue of Satluj Yamuna Link Canal at the behest of his party supremo Arvind Kejriwal.
“Scarcity of water and unfair pricing of crops has landed Punjab farmers under a colossal debt of Rs one lakh crores leading to too many suicides, therefore will never allow a single drop of SYL water to flow to Haryana”, Khaira said while expressing shock over Bhagwant Mann nodding in assent when Kejriwal recently said that SYL water should be shared between Punjab and Haryana.
In a statement issued here today ahead of the proposed October 14 meeting between Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar, Khaira said 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.
Besides, he added, the AAP MP and in-charge of Haryana Dr Sushil Gupta had claimed that since the AAP government was already in Punjab it would ensure that SYL water flowed into Haryana also, which was quite concerning for Punjab.
The Congress MLA asked Mann to take a queue from the Congress government when it repealed all the water sharing agreements with other states in 2004 to save Punjab’s precious waters.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 Arvind Kejriwal is hell bent to pressurize Bhagwant Mann into surrendering our rights over SYL to Haryana in view of the upcoming elections next year.
He said after forming the government in Punjab through his mischievous slogan of Badlav Kejriwal is aiming to form government in Haryana by exploiting the issue of our precious river waters which we will never allow 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 tubewells have led to depletion in ground water level by alarming proportions”.
This is how i frequently send my press releases on vital issues but unfortunately I’m blacked out on media both print & electronic bcoz of @ArvindKejriwal orders who himself accuses Bjp of creating “#GodiMedia but himself is doing d same by gagging Punjab into “#Kejimedia-khaira pic.twitter.com/DQaSturftF
— Sukhpal Singh Khaira (@SukhpalKhaira) October 12, 2022
