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SYL issue: Warring accuses CM Bhagwant Mann of surrendering his authority to PM
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday accused chief minister Bhagwant Mann of surrendering his authority to the Prime Minister (PM) on the SYL issue.
Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday accused chief minister Bhagwant Mann of surrendering his authority to the Prime Minister (PM) on the SYL issue.
Reacting to Mann’s statement that he had suggested approaching the Prime Minister on the matter, Warring said that it amounted to surrendering your authority to someone else. “That is why we had urged him to take everyone into confidence. Mann’s stand should have been simple and straight that Punjab does not have any water to give to anyone else,” he said.
The PPCC president asked the chief minister for what purpose he wanted to approach the Prime Minister. “Suppose the Prime Minister asks you to share our water with Haryana, will you do that?” he asked.
Ridiculing Mann’s statements that the SYL was the doing of the previous regimes, he said this was a “simplistic statement made in utter ignorance”. Warring said the CM should have clarified on the statement by AAP MP and in-charge for Haryana Dr Suhsil Gupta, who announced recently that the SYL water will flow into Haryana by 2025.
Mann lacks clarity on Punjab’s river waters: Bajwa
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) Partap Singh Bajwa on Friday said the stance of the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over the river waters of the state was “not only weak but also lacked clarity and conviction”.
Bajwa claimed that the chief minister during his maiden press conference appeared completely out of sorts as if he had no proper knowledge and understanding of the historical context of the Punjab waters. “Mann was time and again harping on just one point that since Punjab did not have sufficient water, therefore, there is no question of the construction of the SYL canal. In other words, did he mean if Punjab had sufficient water, he would have acceded to the request of Haryana on SYL,” Bajwa said.
He said Haryana being a non-riparian state had no right over Punjab waters and, therefore, under no rule of the land, it can force Punjab to expedite the construction of the SYL canal. The CM’s statement that he was ready to accompany Khattar to Prime Minister Narendra Modi so that the neighbouring state could get water from Yamuna and Ganges rivers was also not “very wise”.
“First of all, the Prime Minister has no authority to decide on sharing of river waters. Besides in both Haryana and at the Centre, the BJP is the ruling party and can decide on its own over sharing the river waters from Yamuna and Ganges. Why Mann was overzealous and eager to resolve the issue on behalf of Haryana,” he said.
