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Sack Punjab minister for holding BBMB chairman hostage: Hooda
Demands central forces be deployed at Bhakra-Nangal dam instead of Punjab Police; accuses AAP of politicising water distribution with eye on elections.
Former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday demanded that Punjab AAP minister Harjot Singh Bains, who held Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) chairman Manoj Tripathi hostage for two hours at Nangal dam, should be sacked immediately.
Speaking to journalists in Chandigarh, Hooda described Bains’s act as reprehensible, illegal, unconstitutional and unacceptable.
Hooda also demanded that the central government take cognizance of the matter and immediately deploy central forces by removing Punjab Police from Bhakra dam.
The Congress leader said that the Bhakra-Nangal dam is a central government project. “The technical committee of BBMB decides the distribution of water to the states. No one can exercise dictatorship. Haryana is right in demanding its share of water,” he said.
“From 1966 till today, there has never been any dispute over this water distribution. Why has such a situation been created today? Because elections are coming in Punjab (in 2027) and the political ground of the Aam Aadmi Party has slipped. That is why AAP is doing mere politics on water,” Hooda said.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has also given clear instructions to the Punjab government not to interfere in water distribution. In such a situation, the Punjab government is disobeying orders of the court, he said. “The Haryana government should raise its point strongly. This dispute should be ended with the Centre’s immediate intervention. The opposition is with the government on this. We will take every drop of water that is our right,” he said.
Hooda said the rights of Haryana are already being violated due to the non-construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal.
