Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday chaired the 31st meeting of the Northern Zonal Council in Punjab’s Amritsar and discussed a broad range of issues, including sharing of inter-state river waters, strengthening of the security system along the border and speedy investigation of cases of sexual offence or rape against women and children.
According to a statement by the ministry of home affairs (MHA), Shah discussed over 28 issues concerning the member states and the country as a whole during the meeting which was held amid tight security in the Punjab city.
The Northern Zonal Council comprises Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh and the UTs of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Chandigarh.
During the meeting, the Union minister “requested all the member states of the Northern Zonal Council to resolve their disputes related to water sharing with an open mind and mutual discussion”, the MHA statement said. Currently, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan are locked in separate water disputes. Both the Punjab and Haryana governments spoke about the construction of the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal which has been a bone of contention between the two states for several decades.
Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said: “The Punjab government is continuously misleading on the construction of SYL.” Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann strongly opposed the construction of the SYL canal, saying it can lead to serious law and order issues. The Sutlej River has already dried up and there is no question of sharing “even a single drop of water from it”, he said. Rather, water from Ganga and Yamuna should be supplied to Punjab through Sutlej river, he added. Mann also sought Shah’s intervention in release of the Rural Development Funds, which, the former claimed, has been pending for a long time.
{{/usCountry}}Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar said: “The Punjab government is continuously misleading on the construction of SYL.” Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann strongly opposed the construction of the SYL canal, saying it can lead to serious law and order issues. The Sutlej River has already dried up and there is no question of sharing “even a single drop of water from it”, he said. Rather, water from Ganga and Yamuna should be supplied to Punjab through Sutlej river, he added. Mann also sought Shah’s intervention in release of the Rural Development Funds, which, the former claimed, has been pending for a long time.
{{/usCountry}}Besides this, Shah reiterated the Centre’s commitment to strengthen the security system along the border. “Soon an anti-drone system will be deployed on our country’s borders.” He asked all member states and Union territories to pay special attention to collective priority issues such as cooperative movement in the country, dropout rate of schoolchildren and malnutrition.
Delhi L-G V K Saxena raised the issue of air pollution, especially due to the burning of crop residues. Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu demanded a special relief package of ₹12,000 crore to the disaster-affected state and said that the government was trying to recover from one of the worst calamities ever witnessed, according to a statement from his office. Shah, according to MHA, assured all possible help to the state and said the whole country is standing by it in this hour of crisis.