Extra water to Haryana: Capt questions urgency
Wednesday, 08/04/2015
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PATIALA: Former Punjab chief minister and Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Capt Amarinder Singh on Tuesday questioned the ‘undue urgency’ shown by the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government in providing extra water to Haryana, when Punjab itself did not have enough of the resource.
Accusing Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal of doublespeak, Amarinder claimed that the even as the embankment height of the Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal was being raised; the CM was repeatedly claiming that the state did not have a drop of water to spare. “Badal has betrayed Punjab for the second time,” he alleged.
“In 1977, Badal accepted ` 2 crore from the then Haryana chief minister Devi Lal for the construction of the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, which actually weakened Punjab’s case till we enacted the Punjab Termination of Water Sharing Agreement Act, 2004. Now, he has done a similar thing — apparently under pressure from the BJP government at the Centre,” he alleged.
“The state government has handled things in hurried and hush-hush manner, leading to doubts on its real intentions,” he claimed, adding that he was surprised at the ‘extra-efficiency’ shown by state irrigation department in completing work in a time-bound manner.
“I will not be surprised if tomorrow we are told that Badal has agreed to the completion of SYL canal,” he claimed, adding that the Congress would not allow this at any cost.
