SAD leader asks AAP to explain Arvind Kejriwal's stand on Sutlej Yamuna Link canal

Amritsar, November 5

Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Virsa Singh Valtoha has asked AAP to explain the reason why Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in favour of Haryana on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.

In a release issued here on Sunday, Valtoha said Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his advisers were resorting to wild allegations against the SAD leadership to divert attention from the matter in which AAP and its government in Punjab had compromised state’s river water interests.

“The SAD has, however, still given a comprehensive reply on the falsehood being propagated that its government led by Parkash Singh Badal had arrived at a quid pro quo with Chaudhary Devi Lal in 1998 by relining the Bhakra Main Line (BML) canal in return for the creation of a canal to take water to the Badal family’s land in Balasar village in Haryana,” Valtoha said.

“We explained that the Balasar canal, which was part of the BML irrigation system, came into existence in 1964, more than a decade before Devi Lal became Chief Minister of Haryana. We have also challenged the Chief Minister to prove his allegation that Parkash Singh Badal wrote letters to the Centre urging it to construct the SYL when he was in jail during the period of Emergency,” the senior Akali leader said.

He also asked the AAP government to explain if it had ever condemned the statement of AAP Haryana unit president Sushil Gupta that the party would ensure SYL waters to each and every corner of the state once it forms its government in 2024. He said the CM was yet to take any action against its Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak who had recently batted for Haryana and asserted that SYL waters should be released to the state.

The SAD leader also ridiculed recent assertions by an AAP spokesman that people had now got to know that the Badal family owned land in Balasar as well as hotels. “All this has been reflected in income tax returns,” he said while adding that the AAP was resorting to cheap tactics to divert attention from its failures to protect the interests of Punjabis in the SYL.