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SAD leaders prevented from marching towards Punjab CM’s house
Police on Tuesday used a water cannon to disperse Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers to thwart their march towards Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s official residence over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue
Chandigarh : Police on Tuesday used a water cannon to disperse Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) workers to thwart their march towards Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s official residence over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.
The police also detained senior leadership of SAD led by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal. They were released later.
Police had raised barricades to prevent SAD workers from heading towards the chief minister’s residence. When protesters tried to break through barricades, police used the water cannon to disperse them.
Addressing the dharna, Sukhbir said they wanted to go to the residence of Mann for a debate on Punjab issues, “but the CM ram away from the debate,” the SAD chief said. On October 8, CM Mann had challenged the BJP, Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal for an open debate on issues relating to the state on November 1.
Sukhbir said water was a natural resource for Punjab just like coal was for Chhattisgarh and marble for Rajasthan. “This resource has been taken away from Punjab unilaterally by successive Congress governments from 1955 when half of our river waters was given to Rajasthan and then in 1976 when another half of the remaining water was given to Haryana,” he added.
He said former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had tried to amend this injustice by filing a case in the apex court challenging Article 78 of the Reorganization Act which bestowed power to the central government to allocate water resources to the new states.
“However, in 1981 former prime minister Indira Gandhi prevailed upon Darbara Singh to withdraw this case from the Supreme Court and agree to construction of the SYL canal which was subsequently ceremoniously inaugurated by Indira Gandhi in 1982,” he said.
Asserting that AAP was following the line taken by the Congress, Sukhbir said: “The AAP is readying to give more the state’s river waters to Haryana and Rajasthan to derive political advantage in the upcoming assembly elections.”
He said the chief minister admitted as such during a hearing on the SYL case in the Supreme Court. The Punjab government expressed its willingness to give water to Haryana but for protests from the opposition and issue of acquisition of land for SYL whose land was returned to farmers by Parkash Singh Badal in 2016,” he said.
