Shiromani Akali Dal today reiterated its commitment to ensure that Punjab should get back its capital Chandigarh as part and parcel of state besides safeguarding its water rights on the basis of Riparian laws. Party welcomed the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief Partap Singh Bajwa’s statement that Punjab Congress would support these demands and dared him to stick to his stand. In a statement issued here, Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, Member Parliament and General Secretary Shiromani Akali Dal said that Shiromani Akali Dal has given many sacrifices and struggled to safeguard the rights of Punjab and if Bajwa’s statement was not just for media coverage than it was highly appreciable.
He said that Mr. Bajwa should also dare to convince his party high command on the legitimate issues of Punjab. “It is too late by Congress but still good that after getting severe political shocks Congress leaders are thinking in right direction, otherwise, Congress could easily solve the to genuine demands of Punjab when it was in power both at Haryana and in centre for a decade”, he added. Reminding Bajwa about the tactics opted by his party in past, Prof. Chandumajra said that Congress led centre and state governments promoted disputes between two states to meet their own petty interests. He said Congress governments had spend crores on the water disputes and digging canals to seep water out of Punjab but they had never thought of spending half of this money on providing water saving irrigation technologies to farmers at affordable prices.
Prof. Chandumajra said that Congress governments were well aware of the fact that green revolution would have negative impact on the ground water index in both states thus the party used the scarcity of water as a tool of conflict between two states. He said that now when Congress was nowhere at political map of India its leaders were trying to grab space in media by issuing such statements.