Akali Dal slams AAP govt for expressing willingness to construct SYL canal

Chandigarh, Oct 4 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Wednesday condemned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab for expressing its willingness to construct the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal.

Terming this contention in the apex court as tantamount to backstabbing farmers, senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia said: “We proudly oppose the construction of the SYL canal which will be only constructed over our dead bodies.

“We challenge the AAP government to relay this message to the Supreme Court. Punjabis and SAD will never let the grand conspiracy of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal to hand over the state’s river waters to Haryana to succeed at any cost.”

Explaining the manner in which the AAP government had betrayed Punjab in the apex court, Majithia said, “Punjab’s counsel blamed Opposition parties as well as problems in acquiring land from farmers as the reasons for delay in construction of the SYL.”

He said this meant the state government was committed to constructing the SYL canal and had admitted so in court.

“This is also in line with the affidavit filed by the AAP government in Delhi in the Supreme Court calling for Haryana and Delhi being granted their share of waters from the SYL canal.”

He said AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sushil Goyal was also on record as having promised the people of Haryana that once AAP formed the government in 2024 it would ensure water from the SYL canal reached each and every corner of Haryana.

Asserting that the SYL canal was history, Majithia said farmers were given repossession of land acquired for building the canal by former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal in 2016.

“I am proud that I was the revenue minister at the time and organised the function to hand over the land titles to the farmers. In such a situation no land exists in Punjab which can be used to take the state’s river waters to Haryana.”

Majithia also highlighted how 109 out of the 128 blocks in Punjab had been declared as dark zones due to severe depletion of groundwater.

“There is a real danger of Punjab being turned into a desert if the Aam Aadmi Party’s conspiracy to hand over the state’s waters to Haryana succeeds. SAD is committed to safeguarding the waters of Punjab and no sacrifice is too big to achieve this goal. We will not let one drop of additional water go to Haryana.”