SYL Canal issue: Haryana delegation led by Hooda to meet PM

Describing the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal as the "lifeline" for Haryana, the State Assembly today decided to send an all-party delegation, led by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, to meet the Prime Minister seeking direction to take up construction of the canal at the earliest.
Towards the end of a two-hour debate on the resolution on the SYL Canal issue which was moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala, the House left it to Speaker Kuldeep Sharma to select members of the all-party delegation which would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The resolution was passed unanimously by the Assembly with support from opposition INLD and BJP MLAs. Surjewala requested the Speaker to be a part of the delegation in his capacity of being "custodian of the House".

Earlier, the House witnessed blame game between ruling Congress and opposition MLAs over the non-completion of SYL Canal despite Surjewala telling the members "perhaps, it is time to rise above political blame game (on SYL issue)".
Both sides sought to take credit on whatever construction work of the canal had been carried out earlier.
BJP's legislature party leader Anil Vij, while speaking on the resolution, said the Congress remembers the issue only when elections are close. Assembly polls in Haryana are due in October this year.

Vij mooted that an all-party delegation should meet the Prime Minister on the issue. After he had said this, the treasury benches responded and seconded the idea.

Referring to a recent Supreme Court judgment, the resolution mentioned that there is a "clear obligation of Government of India to implement the direction dated June 4, 2004, of the Supreme Court by taking over the construction of SYL Canal and proceeding to construct the same through its own agency (any agency of the Centre)".
"The House also calls upon the Government of Punjab to extend all cooperation in construction of the SYL canal in its territory," the resolution said.
The resolution said that on May 7, 2014, a Constitution Bench of five judges of the Supreme Court in a case titled 'State of Tamil Nadu versus State of Kerala and others' "has adjudicated on the identical issue of power of legislature of a State to be a judge in its own cause by deciding on an inter-state dispute by enacting a law to decide such a dispute in its favour and by openly flouting a judicial pronouncement in process thereof".