Chandigarh:- Giving a new twist to the inter-state water dispute, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh today asked that when all the resources between Punjab and Haryana, at the time of the partition of the state, were divided in the 60:40 ratio, why not water also.
Punjab was subjected to “grave injustice” as the distribution ratio was reversed in the case of water, he said talking to reporters here.
He accused Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal of playing the “double games” on the matter.
“While in the Punjab Assembly he has been crying hoarse that he will not allow a drop of water to go out of Punjab, at the Centre he is colluding with the BJP which is supporting Haryana on the issue”, he said.
Questioning Badal’s sincerity in the matter, he pointed out that after getting the bill to de-notify the SYL land passed in the Vidhan Sabha he (Badal) never sent it to the Governor for his assent.
“Compared to that, we passed the bill to terminate all water sharing agreements during the day, got the Governor’s assent in the afternoon and notified it in the evening, all in the course of few hours only”, he recalled, while asserting that such matters cannot be delayed.
He said, Badal had for the reasons best known to him deliberately delayed the matter giving too much time to Haryana and the Central government to act against Punjab.
Maintaining that Punjab had been “denied” its due share of water, the former Chief Minister said, while Punjab got 105 lakh acres of land, it got only 8.5 MAF (million acre feet) of water while Haryana was allotted 12 MAF water against only 80 lakh acres of land.
He pointed out, while Haryana was allotted water from the rivers flowing in Punjab, river Yamuna was not taken into consideration while distribution of water was decided.
PTI
