‘Begin work by Feb 23, or will block roads to Punjab’
CHANDIGARH: Mounting pressure on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly Abhay Chautala on Tuesday threatened that his party, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), will be “compelled” to block all roads linking the state with Punjab if work on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal fails to start by February 23, 2017.
Briefing newspersons here, Abhay said Punjab was surrounded by Haryana on its three sides, and if it continued to flout Supreme Court verdicts on sharing of Ravi-Beas river water in favour of Haryana, the INLD would block all roads leading to Punjab. Abhay had about a month ago threatened that his party workers would themselves dig the SYL canal if the BJP government at the Centre as well as in Haryana failed to get the verdict of the apex court implemented by February 23.
Abhay said he would also write to all state legislators, parliamentarians and leaders of all political parties in the state to join the INLD in its “jal yudh” (fight for water) if they wanted Haryana to get justice. Alleging that leaders of both the BJP and Congress were only doing politics on the SYL issue, Abhay said former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda should take up the issue with the party high command in order to convince the Punjab Congress - which is against giving river water to Haryana - or resign from the party. “Likewise, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar should take up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for state’s share of water or it will become clear that Khattar is a weak CM,” he held.
INLD TO CELEBRATE PARKASH UTSAV
Abhay said INLD workers along with the members of Sikh community will celebrate 350th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh (Parkash Utsav). The leader of opposition said he along with other party leaders will take part in the ‘nagar kirtan’ that would start from the Nada Sahib gurdwara on December 30 and culminate at Sirsa on January 1, from where 22 buses of devotees would leave for the Patna Sahib gurdwara.