Take clear stand in Pb's interest at meet on SYL:Sukhbir to CM

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal today asked Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to take a clear stand in the state's interest over Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) issue in a meeting to be held on April 20 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Haryana.
Stating that Amarinder will have to stand firm in the interest of Punjab, he said the entire history of the SYL canal was that of "discrimination" against the state at the behest of Congress governments at the Centre.
"Even Amarinder Singh is a part of this history. As Patiala MP, he has the unfortunate legacy of having welcomed the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to inaugurate digging of the SYL canal, with advertisements, in 1982," Sukhbir said.

"Punjab has paid a heavy price due to the about turn made by a Congress chief minister on the directions of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Darbara Singh withdrew the case challenging Section 78 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act which was used to allocate 3.5 MAF water to Haryana in the Supreme Court," the Shiromani Akali Dal chief said in a statement.
Asserting that "past is past and Amarinder understood his mistake" and tried to make amends by abrogating water treaties, Sukhbuir said it was left to Parkash Singh Badal to make history by finishing the SYL issue once and for all.

"The SAD-BJP government denotified the order whereby land was acquired for construction of the SYL canal and transferred it back to the farmers," he said.

Welcoming the meeting called by the Centre, Sukhbir said it is a golden opportunity to make Haryana understand the entire issue in a perspective and resolve the issue in its entirety.
"We need to go into all aspects of the case, including well laid riparian principles as well as the dwindling water flow in both Ravi and Beas waters and also increased dependence on river waters in Punjab due to steep wall in the ground water level in the State," he said.

Sukhbir said a fresh tribunal could also be established to calculate river water available in Punjab as well as increase in canal water use in the state.
Excuding confidence that Amarinder will not surrender Punjab's rights on this issue, around which the state's economy as well as that of its farmers' lives revolved, he assured the people that the SAD will never allow a single drop of water to leave the state.
Sukhbir said his party would however support any positive step taken by the Amarinder-led state government to safeguard the river waters.
"We are ready to sacrifice ourselves but will not allow river water rights of Punjab to be surrendered at any cost", he said.

Yesterday, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi told an SC bench headed by Justice P C Ghose that a meeting has been called on April 20 by the Centre which has invited the two states Punjab and Haryana to resolve the decades-old contentious issue of SYL canal.