SYL will never become reality: Badal

Upping the ante, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) would never become a reality and accused successive Congress governments at the Centre of doing "grave injustice" to the state.
According to Badal, Punjab doesn't have a single drop of spare water for anybody and SYL agreement was a "grave injustice done by the successive Congress governments with the state."
He said Akali Dal was opposed to the agreement which it believed would rob the water of the state and now they were firm on their stand not to allow the construction of the canal at any cost.

"Ironically Captain Amarinder Singh and other Congress leaders who hailed the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for ground breaking ceremony for the project in 1980s are now resorting to tactics like ground-filling at the same site just to mislead the people," the CM said.
The Chief Minister said any such move to share the river waters of the state would be "disastrous" for it.
He said while undertaking the agreement on the SYL canal, the then Congress government at the Centre "completely overlooked the universally-accepted riparian principle on river water sharing."

"Not only me but every Punjabi was duty bound to oppose this move and all of us should pledge to protect the waters of the state at any cost," he said.

The Chief Minister alleged that the successive Congress governments at the Centre have meted out step motherly treatment to Punjab by denying it of legitimate share in river waters.
He alleged that Congress has inflicted a deep wound on the Sikh psyche by irrelevantly meddling in their social, political, economic and even religious matters.
Badal claimed that when the digging work of the canal was
started in early 1980s, he and other Akali leaders got themselves arrested, protesting the move, "whereas Captain Amarinder Singh was present with his leaders and was happy over the turn of events to appease his leadership."

Hitting out at AAP, Badal alleged that the party has "already shown its real face by submitting an affidavit in the Supreme Court over water issue."
Asking people for fighting the issue of Punjab waters, he reiterated that not even a drop of water will be spared for anyone and he was ready to do any kind of sacrifice for that.
He said that already the state had sacrificed its natural resource-- water to feed the nation and now if this water is given to other states, "Punjab will be devastated".
On the occasion, Badal highlighted several initiatives of present SAD-BJP government on various fronts.

Talking about his Sangat Darshan programme, Badal said that these programs are held to listen to the problems of people.
"Only a person who has risen from among the people can understand problems of common man. But Captain Amarinder Singh thinks it is disadvantageous for him to move amongst the commoners and wants to stay alone in his royal house," he said, taking a dig at the former chief minister.