Sukhbir Badal asks AAP to clarify on SYL canal

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 20

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday asked Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal not to play politics on the sensitive issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal even as he asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to urge the AAP convener to withdraw the guarantee given on this issue to the people of Haryana.

Badal who was at the Gurdwara Rakabganj in Delhi said Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema has announced that the state’s river waters would not flow into Haryana. However, Rajya Sabha MP had given a guarantee on behalf of Kejriwal in Haryana that water from the SYL canal would irrigate each and every field in the State.

Asserting that the conduct of AAP had the potential to inflame sentiments in the entire region, said the continued silence of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on this issue was being read as a weakness by Punjabis.

“It seems Mann knows the real intentions of Kejriwal which are known as the Delhi CM had filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court demanding water be released to Haryana and Delhi through the SYL,” Badal said.

If Mann does not step in and ask Kejriwal to withdraw the guarantee given by his party to the people of Haryana, he should be prepared to face the angst of Punjabis who will not allow one drop of water to flow into Haryana from the SYL canal, Badal added.

Badal, who was Deputy Chief Minister of the state, said as far as the SAD was concerned, the issue of SYL had been closed forever in 2016 when Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal de-notified all land acquired to build the canal and handed it back to farmers.

Badal went on to condemn the manner in which the Punjab Police was being misused to victimise political opponents of AAP. Bhagwant Mann should not allow misuse of the Punjab Police on the directions of the Delhi Chief Minister, he said. “We are witnessing cases being registered against all those who have stood up to AAP and the latest victim is Kumar Vishwas,” Badal said. Vishwas was served a notice by Punjab Police this morning at his home in Ghaziabad over a complaint in Punjab.

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