Chandigarh, Oct 17 (PTI) Aam Aadmi Party general secretary Sandeep Pathak on Tuesday slammed the BJP and the Congress for allegedly taking no initiatives to resolve the SYL canal issue when they were in power at the same time at both the Centre and in Punjab and Haryana.
Pathak said every time polls are near, the parties raise the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) matter.
When polls are near, then the SYL issue is raised. The question is that once polls are over, why do they forget the issue, he asked.
When the BJP-led governments ruled at the Centre and in Punjab (in alliance with erstwhile ally SAD) as well as Haryana, why did they not resolve the issue, Pathak said.
Likewise, at one time, Congress-led governments ruled at the Centre and in both the states, but they too did not resolve the SYL issue, he added.
For them, the SYL issue is only a political issue and they only do politics over it. But on such issues, there should be no politics, Pathak said, replying to questions from reporters in Karnal and Sirsa.
With Lok Sabha polls due next year, Pathak is currently on a three-day visit to Haryana. As part of the visit that began on Monday, he has been meeting party workers in different Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
Pathak said it is the responsibility of the Centre to see that all the states should get water according to their rights.
What is Haryana’s right, Haryana should get it, what is Punjab’s right, Punjab should get it. It is the responsibility of the Centre, both on moral grounds and administrative grounds as well on this, he said.
The Supreme Court had on October 4 asked the Centre to survey the portion of land in Punjab which was allocated for the construction of part of the SYL canal in the state and make an estimate of the extent of construction carried out there.
All political parties in Punjab have asserted that the state does not have a single drop of additional water to share with any other state, though political outfits in Haryana welcomed the apex court directions.
Asked about the refusal of political parties in Punjab to share the water, Pathak said in Karnal, “Our stand is very clear. Punjab should get its share and Haryana should get its share. No politics should be done on this”.
He also asked the BJP and Congress to reveal their stand on the issue.
“When you ask them (BJP, Congress) in Punjab they will say one thing and something else in Haryana,” he said, adding that both the parties want to politicise the issue and not resolve it.
Meanwhile, Shiromani Akali Dal senior leader Daljit Singh Cheema on Tuesday demanded that “Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann should clarify whether he stood with Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, Sandeep Pathak’s stand that Haryana should get water from the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal”.
“If not then what action he proposes to take against him,” Cheema said in a statement here.
The SAD leader further said, “Chief Minister Mann wants to hold a debate on the SYL canal on November 1 but his own government has compromised the state’s case in the Supreme Court. Now an AAP MP from Punjab is batting for Haryana”.
Cheema also said, “Pathak is even claiming that the matter is only political”.
In Sirsa, Pathak claimed that the people in BJP-ruled Haryana want “badlav” (change) as they have seen the good work of the AAP governments in Delhi and Punjab.
He expressed confidence that the people will make AAP victorious in the next Assembly polls.
Pathak said the AAP will fight the next Haryana elections on “farmers, unemployment, education, health, corruption, and women-related issues”. PTI SUN RHL
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.