Punjab: Opposition leaders skip open debate, CM Mann targets previous govts over SYL canal issue

Opposition leaders in Punjab skipped an open debate on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the state, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann saying it would have been better had they come and not runaway from presenting their views.While the Shiromani Akali Dal SAD a day earlier had said that it is not a debate but a PR exercise and PR stunt of the Aam Aadmi Party AAP dispensation in Punjab, its former ally BJP on Wednesday slammed it as a government sponsored and controlled event.

Opposition leaders in Punjab skipped an open debate on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the state, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann saying it would have been ''better'' had they come and not ''runaway'' from presenting their views.

While the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) a day earlier had said that it is not a debate but a ''PR exercise and PR stunt'' of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) dispensation in Punjab, its former ally BJP on Wednesday slammed it as a government sponsored and controlled event. Targeting opposition parties on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, Mann alleged that the previous governments in Punjab, whether that of the Congress or the SAD, compromised the state's interests in the matter.

It is a well-known fact that they had indulged in the ''unpardonable crime'' of constructing the canal for their vested interests, he said at the 'Main Punjab Bolda Haan' debate, where he was the only leader on the dais with members of opposition parties, including the BJP, the SAD and the Congress, not in attendance.

Mann said that Punjab has no spare water to share with any other state, including Harayana, so instead of SYL canal, the project should be now conceived as the Yamuna-Sutlej Link (YSL) canal. The Sutlej river has dried up and there is no question of sharing even a single drop of water from it, the chief minister said.

Rather, Mann said, water from the Ganga and the Yamuna should be supplied to Punjab through the Sutlej river. He added that he has raised this issue with the Centre too.

He said the state government has emphatically presented the issue of the less availability of water and it has been recorded too in the Supreme Court. On October 8, Mann had dared Punjab BJP chief Sunil Jakhar, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa and SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal for the open debate on issues concerning the state, including the SYL canal matter.

Speaking at the event held in an auditorium of the Punjab Agricultural University here, Mann alleged that opposition leaders ran away from participating in the debate as they did not have any issues against the state government.

The BJP, however, said that it wanted to participate in the debate but no proper procedure was followed for the event.

State BJP general secretary Anil Sarin said it was a government sponsored and government controlled debate with hardly any scope for anyone else to speak and put forth their point of view. ''It was all theirs with their anchor, agenda and audience,'' he said, while claiming that it was a pointless exercise of the AAP government.

Tight security arrangements, including anti-riot force deployment, were made at the university ahead of the debate, which was attended by several ministers, AAP MLAs, intellectuals and industrialists among others.

Lashing out at the opposition leaders, the chief minister said they were invited to the debate so that they could present their views.

Instead of coming here, these leaders preferred to ''runaway'' by citing frivolous reasons, claimed Mann, adding that he will not allow these people to escape and their ''misdeeds'' will be exposed before the people of the state. ''It would have been better had they come,'' Mann said in his more than one-hour long address.

Taking up the SYL canal issue first, Mann said for the sake of their vested interests, these political (opposition) leaders had agreed and planned the construction of this canal.

He said that a single Act -- the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956 -- is applicable throughout India for resolving water disputes among states. But Punjab is the only state where a separate arrangement was made for the distribution of water between it and Haryana in the Punjab Reorganization Act, 1966, said Mann as he alleged that the Centre has always discriminated against his state.

Former prime minister Indira Gandhi vide a notification dated March 24, 1976, divided the Ravi-Beas waters between Punjab and Haryana in the ratio of 50:50 in a forcible manner, which was against the interests of Punjab, the chief minister alleged.

The then chief minister Giani Zail Singh (a Congress leader) ignored the interests of Punjab and acted as a ''puppet'' of the Union government, and on November 16, 1976, he also received a cheque of Rs 1 crore and accelerated the construction of the SYL canal, Mann alleged.

In 1978, the then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal (the late SAD patriarch) had demanded Rs 3 crore more for the SYL canal, and also took Rs 1.50 crore from the Haryana government in March 1979, he claimed.

Mann also claimed that Badal had issued a letter for the acquisition of land for the SYL canal. The then Haryana chief minister Devi Lal (an INLD leader) had even made a statement in the state assembly that due to his personal relation with Parkash Singh Badal, the Punjab government acquired the land for the canal, the AAP leader claimed.

In 1981, a white-paper on the Ravi-Beas agreement was brought out, highlighting the benefits of the SYL canal by the Congress government, he said.

He also claimed that in 1998, Parkash Singh Badal, who was the chief minister at that time too, raised the height of the banks of the Bhakra Main Line canal by an average one feet with the intention of giving more water to Haryana and took Rs 45 crore from Haryana for this purpose.

Parkash Singh Badal did this ''sin'' only for the sake of building the 'Balasar canal' which was constructed till his farmhouse by the Haryana government as a reward for his ''treachery'' with Punjab, alleged Mann.

It is evident from this, that the then SAD government was ''betraying'' the interests of the people of Punjab as personal interests were preferred over those of the public, he said.

Mann also said that despite stiff opposition by farmers, former prime minister Indira Gandhi and Amarinder Singh (a then Congress MP) had performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the SYL canal in the presence of Congress leader Balram Jakhar on April 8, 1982.

Amarinder Singh, a former Punjab chief minister, had quit the Congress ahead of the last Punjab assembly polls and joined the BJP. Mann also slammed the previous governments over the state debt issue and problems being faced by transport, industry and other sectors. Earlier, some activists of teachers' organisations and members of the Krantikari Kisan Union were not allowed to enter the event's venue. They wanted to participate in the debate.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)