Captain Amarinder questions giving extra water to Haryana
Wednesday, 08/04/2015
http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=128485&boxid=58796&uid=&dat=2015-04-08
Patiala : Former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, while criticising Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal for not being assertive about the state’s claim over water, on Tuesday questioned the undue urgency shown by the SAD-BJP government in providing extra water to Haryana, when Punjab had not enough water to meet its own requirements.
Reacting to the raising of the embankment height of Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal near Khanauri in Sangrur district by Punjab Irrigation Department for providing extra water to Haryana, Singh said: “It is for the second time that the SAD-BJP regime has betrayed Punjab.”
“It was the same Badal who had accepted Rs 2 crore from then Haryana Chief Minister Devi Lal in 1977 for the construction of the SYL canal which actually weakened Punjab’s case till we enacted the Punjab Termination of Water Sharing Agreement Act in 2004 and now he had repeated exactly the same thing apparently under pressure from the BJP government at the Centre,” said Singh, also Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, while wondering about the compulsions that have made Badal to succumb to the pressure. Former Chief Minister said, given the sensitivity of the matter, it should have been handled with extra care and caution. “Instead what we have learnt is that the Punjab government did everything in such a hurried and hush-hush manner leading to doubts about its real intentions,” he observed, while adding, “I was rather surprised over the extra-efficiency shown by Punjab’s Irrigation Department in completing the work at such a phenomenal speed in a time bound manner otherwise usually unheard of.”
He maintained that the raising of the embankment level and that too using the services of the Punjab irrigation department needs to be viewed along with Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharati’s recent statement on the SYL issue. “A clear pattern is visible as the things unfold and I will not be surprised if tomorrow we are told that Badal has agreed to the completion of SYL canal,” he remarked, warning that shall be the dangerous and the darkest moment for Punjab which will not be allowed at any cost.
Expressing serious doubts about the claims that the embankment was being raised to provide actual share of water to Haryana, Capt Amarinder Singh asked from where this water will come and from whose share it will be taken out.
“It is the outright disguise and deceit as why only now we are told that Haryana was getting less share of the water”, he asked, while apprehending a larger game plan behind all this aimed at forcing Badal to provide more water to Haryana much against the public position he has been taking.
