M A I N   N E W S

Chautala distorting facts, says Amarinder
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 21
The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, today reacted sharply to the manner in which his Haryana counterpart, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, had addressed his own neighbouring colleague and also what he had said on the SYL canal and the sharing of river waters yesterday.

The statement said that it was Mr Chautala, who lacked the basic etiquettes of addressing to a fellow Chief Minister. Mr Chautala had also been very selective in raising the SYL issue whenever he was faced with an election in Haryana or in a situation like the present one when the monsoon is apparently failing.

The Chief Minister described Mr Chautala’s outburst as an ‘’opportunistic stance’’ on the construction of the SYL canal and the apportioning of water between the two states. ‘’It is actually he (Mr Chautala) who is either unaware or is deliberately trying to project a distorted picture of the true facts’’, he added.

Haryana had less cultivable land than Punjab and had been given water far in excess from the rivers. “How come Mr Chautala fails to mention this fact on any occasion and tell it to the people,? he said. Haryana politicians were using the SYL canal as a convenient political tool to draw the people’s attention away from real issues.

Capt. Amarinder Singh hit out at Mr Chautala and asked how come he had been extremely reluctant and reticent in raising the SYL issue in public when his ‘’good friend and political ally’’, Mr Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister?

The Chief Minister’s statement was emphatic in saying that Punjab’s decision to file a review petition in the Supreme Court on the SYL canal was final.