Punjab political outfits slam Omar over remarks on river water

Punjab political parties on Friday slammed Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s remark over the Indus water rights.

Ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) spokesperson Neel Garg accused Abdullah of deliberately politicising the water issue.

Related news: Why should I send water to Punjab? J-K needs it first, says Omar Abdullah

Garg said the authority to decide on the sharing of river waters lied with the Centre. “Hence, Omar Abdullah cannot take a unilateral decision on this matter,” he said.

Garg said, like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab was also a border state. Whenever a war took place, Punjab became a battleground, he said.

“And when the country needs foodgrains, it becomes the granary of the nation. Now that there is water available, Punjab has a legitimate claim over it,” he said

He said most areas in Punjab were in the dark zone when it came to water availability.

“In the process of filling the nation’s granaries, we have been deprived of our own water,” he added.

The Punjab Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) too slammed Abdullah’ statement.

In a statement, Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the reported statement of Omar that he would not allow the water from three J&K rivers to flow to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan was absurd, to say the least.

Warring said it was unbecoming of the J&K CM to make such remarks when the canals proposed to be constructed, were to save the water from going to Pakistan.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has also expressed surprise over Omar’s statement claiming that his state had the complete right over the Indus water system.

In a statement, former minister and senior SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said earlier the Indira Gandhi government had done great injustice with Punjab while giving away a huge share of river waters to the non-riparian state Rajasthan.

Dr Cheema said what Omar was demanding was another attempt to do injustice with Punjab. He said while filling the food bowl of the country, Punjab had lost its groundwater. He said the quantity of water in rivers had also gone down substantially.