Sukhbir writes to PM Modi, says river water issue not a dispute but 'loot' against Punjab

Chandigarh, May 4 (IANS) Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal on Sunday said the issue of water of Punjab’s rivers “is not a dispute but a case of brazen loot against the people of the patriotic border state”.

The Akali chief “cautioned the country that not removing the reasons of alienation of Punjabis can push us back towards the conditions that afflicted us all for over two decades. Justice is the best guarantee for peace and communal harmony in the country”.

Badal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to end the reasons that have caused so much avoidable misery in the past. “Removing the reasons of (Punjab’s just grievances) and preventing the recurrence of the painful past needs to be a national priority. On the river waters issue, the only way to achieve that is to ensure justice to my state on exactly the principles applied in interstate disputes all over the country. Punjabis demand no favours: they only seek justice”.

He slammed the Punjab Chief Minister, saying that his and his party’s repeated promises to “irrigate every field in Haryana and Rajasthan with Punjab’s river waters” weaken Punjab’s genuine case that it has not a single drop of water to spare. “The Chief Minister is playing with fire with his duplicity, not realising the gravity of the issue. He must put an end to this double-speak,” Badal wrote.

He said that Shiromani Akali Dal would not remain a mute witness to any discrimination against Punjab on this or any other issue. “We will exercise our democratic right to peacefully ensure that no injustice is done to the state.” He said that already, Rajasthan and Haryana have always been “illegal beneficiaries of Punjab’s sole natural resource -- the river waters -- violating the Riparian principle, the only principle applied in national and international issues on river waters allocation. Neither Haryana nor Rajasthan is a Riparian state.”

He regretted that Punjab had been treated shabbily even on the judicial front. “The Supreme Court ordered Punjab to start the construction of the Satluj Yamuna Link (SYL) canal, without even determining the availability of water in the rivers concerned. This would have been the first canal in the world to be constructed even without knowing if there is any water available to flow through it,” he said, adding then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal categorically refused to implement this order, saying he would rather go to jail than compromise on the just rights of Punjab. Badal then ordered the restoration of lands acquired for the SYL to their original owner farmers.

Referring to the latest controversy on the release of water to Haryana, the Akali chief said Haryana has already used more than the full share of rivers, which too had been unfairly allocated to it as it has no right on those waters. Instead of being grateful to Punjab, it brazenly demands even more water, he added.

--IANS

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