The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today appealed to Punjabis to ‘gherao’ central teams wishing to conduct a survey of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal land in the State, even as it asserted that it was ready for any sacrifice but would not allow the SYL canal to come up in Punjab.
Addressing a press conference here, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia also asked both the AAP government as well as the State unit of the Punjab BJP to clarify their stand on the proposed survey which was to be conducted by the central government. He condemned both Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann as well as Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar for maintaining a deafening silence on such an important issue which concerned the very future of Punjab and its farmers. He also asked the Punjab BJP chief to officially tell the central government to desist from conducting any survey to identify land for the SYL.
Asserting that there was no need for any survey, Bikram Majithia said “Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal has returned more than 4,500 acres of land acquired for the SYL canal back to the 21,000 original owners free of cost”. He said similarly “There is no water to give with 109 out of 128 blocks in the State turning into dark zones due to severe depletion of groundwater”.
Majithia also launched a frontal attack on the chief minister, saying the latter had, under a sinister conspiracy, deliberately weakened Punjab’s case on the SYL canal issue in the Supreme Court. “Besides taking the Advocate General’s resignation on a day when Punjab needed to defend its case resolutely, the government also agreed that it did not have any objection to constructing the SYL canal. It is on record to have blamed the opposition as well as the return of the land on which the canal stood back to farmers by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as the reasons for its inability to construct the canal”. He also accused the chief minister of releasing excess water to Rajasthan to improve AAP’s political fortunes in forthcoming assembly elections in the State. “All this proves that the chief minister is ready to surrender Punjab’s river waters to neighboring States”.
Asserting that Bhagwant Mann was playing to the tunes of Kejriwal, Majithia said “The Delhi chief minister is on record to have said that Haryana and Delhi should be given water from the SYL. Kejriwal’s government also filed an affidavit in the apex court to voice this demand’. He said the Haryana AAP unit as well as Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Gupta had given a guarantee to the people of Haryana that once an AAP government was formed in the State SYL waters would reach each and every corner of Haryana. The SAD leader also took on the AAP government for failing to come out with a definite strategy to save the River waters of Punjab for which a special cabinet meeting was held. “Following the cabinet meeting, finance minister Harpal Cheema had nothing to say on the SYL issue but spent half an hour defending the Delhi and Punjab excise policies besides condemning the arrest of AAP MP Sanjay Singh. Instead of doing this the finance minister should have disclosed why the AAP government was not giving permission to the Enforcement Directorate to prosecute IAS officers KAP Sinha and Varun Roojam under Sections 17 (a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. “It is clear that the noose is tightening against the AAP government in the Punjab excise scam case and that is why AAP was busy protesting against the arrest of Sanjay Singh today instead of telling Punjabis how it would safeguard their river waters”, Majithia added.
