Blaming him squarely for the mess Punjab is finding itself in over the SYL issue, Punjab Congress president Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday held Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal wholly responsible for bringing the people to such a pass through his blatant failure to defend the case properly in the Supreme Court.Had Badal taken steps to fight the case well in the apex court in the wake of the filing of the presidential reference, the interests of the people of Punjab would not have been at stake today, said Captain Amarinder Singh.Reacting to the Supreme Court orders on maintaining status quo in the case and on returning the acquired land to the original owners, Captain Amarinder said the whole mess was of Badal’s making and he had allowed things to get out of hand.His ill-conceived knee-jerk reactions, including passing of two irrational resolutions in the state Assembly following the November 11 verdict of the Supreme Court in the case, have only served to aggravate the situation, said Captain Amarinder.Captain Amarinder vowed to protect the water of Punjab at all costs, making it clear that he would enact a legislation, once elected to power, to ensure that not a single drop of water leaves the state. He added that the Congress would take legal recourse to find a permanent solution to the issue.
Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Charanjit Singh Channi said that Badal had only messed up the matter at every step, from the original land acquisition for SYL construction to the de-acquisition Bill which is still pending the Governor’s approval, and finally the two resolutions passed earlier this month in the House without legislating on them properly. Even the de-notification for which he is now trying to take credit was moved through an amendment motion in the Vidhan Sabha by the Congress, said Channi.Accusing Badal of sheer hypocrisy in the matter, Channi said his malafide intentions were evident from his failure to defend the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, passed during Captain Amarinder’s rule.In a statement issued here, Captain Amarinder reiterated that the Supreme Court had not been apprised of the ground realities by the Badal government and had, hence, been unable to take its decision in the light of the real facts of the case. Pointing out that Punjab had absolutely no surplus water to share with non-riparian states, he said this fact was deliberately not presented before the apex court by Badal, who had clearly been conniving with the Haryana government to sell of Punjab’s water rights in exchange of a few crore rupees, for which there was documented proof.
The Badal government failed to seek the establishment of a fresh Tribunal to assess the current water situation in Punjab, in the light of the declining water table and the melting glaciers, said Captain Amarinder, adding that all the chief minister had ever done on the issue was political posturing, without any serious effort to protect the state’s interests.Referring to his recent actions and declarations on SYL, Captain Amarinder said Badal was simply indulging in theatrics to play with the sentiments of the people of the state, who were standing at the brink of a major disaster as a result of the chief minister’s ill-intentioned actions.The Badals have, from the outset, failed to protect Punjab’s interests on the SYL issue, said Captain Amarinder, who had himself quit his parliamentary seat in the wake of the SC verdict of November 11, along with party MLAs who resigned their Assembly seats.The Punjab Congress chief warned that if the situation was allowed to escalate further, the state could be plunged into violence, with even the possibility of revival of terrorism looming large.