Jakhar begins stir against closure of canals
Tuesday, 21/06/2016
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/punjab/politics/jakhar-begins-stir-against-closure-of-canals/254680.html
Abohar : Hundreds of farmers voluntarily thronged the Canal Colony here on Monday to express solidarity with state Congress vice-president and local MLA Sunil Jakhar as he launched an indefinite stir against the closure of some canals.
Some of the placards which farmers carried read “Badal hai par paani nahin”. They raised slogans against the state government for the “mismanagement” of water.
Jakhar alleged that Badals had “discarded the Abohar-Fazilka area to abet farmers to commit suicide’. “The five-time CM Parkash Singh Badal should be titled CM of Muktsar district only as he had given a free hand to Jathedars to grab a share of neighbouring segments in the canal water,” he alleged.
He said SAD leaders were hell bent on ruining the kinnow orchards, besides the cotton crop which urgently needed the canal water. He said it was mandatory to clean the canal system twice a year and the successive governments had been earmarking about Rs 5 crore bi-annually to take up the cleaning work. Also, there was a provision to utilise a part of the MGNREGA funds for such work but the “lack of will, corruption and mismanagement” had left farmers in the lurch, he said.
Jakhar said he alone would sit on dharna till better water management was assured.
