Will not tolerate loot of Punjab waters, says Akali Dal

Chandigarh, May 2 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday made it clear that it would not tolerate looting of the water resources of Punjab and asserted that the latest move to allocate an additional 8,500 cusecs of water to Haryana is a blow to federalism and should be revoked immediately.

Senior SAD leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundar and Daljit Singh Cheema, who attended the all-party meeting on water sharing called by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, said the state had been discriminated against earlier with the Riparian Principle being given the goby to distribute river waters to neighbouring states arbitrarily.

“Now the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) has allocated additional water to Haryana above and over its quota without taking clearance from the Punjab government. Even officers of BBMB are being changed to facilitate this move.”

Asserting that this was against the essence of federalism, the SAD leaders said: “We have led ‘morchas’ to ensure our river water rights are not snatched. During the previous SAD government, the land on which the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal stand was returned to farmers. We are committed to safeguard the interests of farmers and will not allow even one drop of extra water to flow to Haryana.”

The SAD leaders assured the Punjab state government that their party would support its efforts to safeguard the river waters of the state.

“We are committed to ensuring justice for Punjab. This can be through negotiation or seeking legal recourse. The Centre should also ensure that justice is done to Punjab.”

The SAD leaders also stressed the need to challenge the reconstitution of the BBMB by the Central government.

They said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) should have challenged the reconstitution of the BBMB in court. Not doing so has resulted in the present injustice which has been meted out to Punjab.

They also condemned the manner in which Punjab officers in the BBMB were being transferred out of important posts to influence decisions against the state.

Both Bhundar and Cheema also called for a comprehensive discussion with the Centre on all contentious issues of the state, including the status of Chandigarh, discrimination against Punjab vis-a-vis postings in Chandigarh and non-implementation of Punjabi.

--IANS

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