Bains brothers resign from Punjab Vidhan Sabha over SYL issue

Ludhiana MLA brothers Simarjit and Balwinder Singh Bains on Wednesday resigned from the Punjab Vidhan Sabha over the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.

Earlier the duo said they would resign after holding a debate in the special assembly session on the issue.

Simranjit Singh Bains said there is no question of an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) if the party will not stand in favour of Punjab on the SYL issue. "Kejriwal should clear his stand on the issue that the AAP is against the SC verdict."

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would hear the Satluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue in due course of time.

Hearing a petition filed by a lawyer on behalf of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) for criminal contempt of court against Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his son and Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal , a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Tirath Singh Thakur decided to take up the SYL matter in due course of time. However, the court has not fixed a date for the hearing as of now.

According to the petitioner, both father and son are saying on record that they will not follow the apex court order on the SYL canal issue.

The apex court had on Thursday termed the law passed by Punjab in 2004 to terminate the SYL canal water sharing agreement with neighbouring states "unconstitutional".

Holding that the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, was not in conformity with the provisions of the constitution, the court answered in the negative all the four questions referred to it in a presidential reference.

A constitution bench of the court ruled that Punjab could not have taken a "unilateral" decision to terminate the agreement with Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh to share of the Ravi-Beas river waters.

Simranjit alleged that the Supreme Court verdict came against Punjab because the state government had not represented the case in a good manner. He said the state government was rather seeking the verdict against Punjab.

He termed the resignation by the Congress legislatures, including Captain Amarinder Singh, a mere drama to befool the people.

"Before resigning on the issue, the Congress should have pressed chief minister Badal to call a special assembly session on the issue in which all legislatures barring the political interests should have conducted a debate to find out the legal course of action to save the interest of Punjab," he said after submitting a memorandum to the wife of Vidhan Sabha Speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal on Thursday.

He further said that Awaaz-e-Punjab leaders, including former SAD MLA Pargat Singh and Navjot Kaur Sidhu, would be meeting the Chief Minister tomorrow to press him to hold a debate in the special session so that no drop of water could flow to other states.