Will raise SYL issue on priority: Panwar

Mukesh Tandon

Panipat, June 11

Newly elected member of Rajya Sabha (RS) Krishan Lal Panwar said he would raise the state’s prime issue of Sutlej-Yamuna-Link (SYL) canal in the country’s supreme house on priority.

BJP leaders and his supporters accorded a grand welcome to him at the toll plaza on the NH-44 here as he arrived here after winning the RS polls. He paid floral tributes to Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s statue at the mini-secretariat here.

Five-time legislator

• MLA Krishan Lal represented the Assandh constituency three times — in 1991, on Janata Party ticket; in 1996, on Samata Party ticket; in 2000, on INLD ticket.
• After that, Israna constituency came into existence and Panwar won the election in 2009 on the INLD ticket. He joined the BJP in 2014 and won again.

Sources said as he was a senior Scheduled Caste (SC) leader in the state and the state president of the SC cell of the BJP so the party, with an eye on the SC community, decided to field him in the RS polls. They said the party didn’t have any big name as such and he is also considered to be close to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar.

Panwar said, “The BJP has honoured the Sarv Samaj Anusuchit Jati by electing a small party worker like me as a member of the top house of the country.”

“I will not face any problem in working in the RS as I have an experience of around 25 years in the state Assembly,” Panwar said. “The prime issue of Haryana is the SYL, which is a lifeline of the state. I have worked with five Chief Ministers but only Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has taken a strong stand over it and the apex court has given the decision in favour of Haryana. I will also raise this issue in the Upper House strongly,” Panwar claimed.

He said he would try to bring the maximum central government schemes to the state.