Haryana allparty delegation meets Rajnath in New Delhi
Led by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, delegation urges Union home minister to ensure early construction of canal; Rajnath assures action after taking advice from attorney general
Union home minister Rajnath Singh Friday evening assured an all-party delegation from Haryana that the Centre will take further action on the construction of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal after seeking legal counsel from the Attorney General of India.
Interacting with mediapersons after meeting Rajnath in New Delhi, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the delegation presented the case of the state regarding implementation of orders of the Supreme Court on construction of the SYL canal.
The delegation, led by Khattar, also submitted a memorandum urging the Centre to get the SYL Canal constructed at the earliest.
Khattar said the Supreme Court had delivered its judgment in favour of Haryana and the responsibility for getting the SYL Canal constructed now rested with the central government.
Replying to another question, Khattar said the water to be supplied through the SYL Canal was the rightful share of Haryana. “It was a joint agreement and not an issue between (two) governments,” he added.
“The case of Haryana has been presented before the central government by the all-party delegation in a proper manner, and I hope the canal would be constructed at the earliest and the farmers would get their rightful share of water,” Khattar said.
The delegation comprised several ministers, including Ram Bilas Sharma, Capt Abhimanyu and Anil Vij, state Congress president Ashok Tanwar and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, among others.
Meanwhile, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leaders, including Abhay Chautala and Ashok Arora, claimed that they met Rajnath separately.
In a statement, Abhay said that along with a memorandum submitted to the Union minister, the INLD also gave him details of the verdicts of the Supreme Court of 2002, 2004 and November 10, 2016 which were in favour of Haryana. He said the INLD leaders also apprised him of the “weak” stand of the BJP government in Haryana over the issue because of which the leaders of Punjab had repeatedly been speaking adversely against the Haryana interests.
Abhay further said that Rajnath had assured the INLD that he would again hold a meeting with the delegation after taking legal opinion on the matter.
Notably, Punjab and Haryana have been locked in a dispute over the sharing of the Ravi-Beas waters for the past over five decades. While Haryana wants its share as was decided when the state was carved out of Punjab, along with Himachal Pradesh, 50 years ago, successive Punjab governments have refused to share water.
The Supreme Court had in November last year held as unconstitutional the 2004 law passed by Punjab to terminate all water-sharing agreements with Haryana which now seeks the apex court’s directions for construction of the SYL canal.
An all-party delegation from Haryana had earlier met President Pranab Mukherjee in this regard.