Punjab now has more responsibility to provide water for SYL canal: Hry CM
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Mar, 2022 11:22 AM
Chandigarh, March 17 (IANS) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday raised the issue of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal after the formation of new government in Punjab, saying the neighbouring state is now doubly responsible as "we have to take water from Punjab and give it to Delhi".
In such a situation, Punjab's responsibility to provide water for the SYL canal is more as now both the states are ruled by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
The SYL canal, the major portions of which were completed in the 1990s at a cost of over Rs 750 crore, is entangled in a political and legal quagmire with Punjab and Haryana unwilling to give up their respective stands on the controversial canal issue and sharing of river water.
Officials told IANS that Delhi is demanding more water from Haryana due to increasing pressure of population from Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana. Haryana is ready to give its share of water to Delhi, but the other states should also contribute to meet the water requirement of Delhi from the Sutlej, Beas and Ganga rivers.
Responding to another question, Khattar said the Punjab government would now have to think when the budget of the state would be presented. The debit to GSDP ratio of the state is 48 per cent, which is just 24.98 per cent in Haryana.
Khattar said that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal boasts of different things.
"Delhi cannot be compared to Haryana. There will be about 1,100 government schools in Delhi, but there are 15,000 government schools in Haryana. At the same time, the cultivated land there is very less as compared to Haryana, as we have 80 lakh acres of agricultural land.
"Similarly, different regions have different conditions, so Delhi cannot be compared to Haryana. But Haryana can definitely be compared to Punjab," Khattar said.
Responding to a question, Khattar said the Chief Minister's Good Governance Associates (CMGGA) programme in Haryana has nothing to do with any political organisation and the government does not pay them any salary.
Meanwhile, as a goodwill gesture, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann participated in the 'Holi Milan Samaroh' at the Haryana Raj Bhavan here on Thursday.
Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya welcomed Mann, who presented a bouquet to the former. Khattar and Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala also felicitated Mann with bouquets on the occasion. Punjab Governor Banwarilal Purohit also graced the occasion.
Jorhat district police chief Ankur Jain said that the police and the disaster management personnel located the capsized boat about 350 metres from the riverbank.
Demanding the MSP of wheat to be fixed at Rs 2,830 per quintal (as against present Rs 2,015 per quintal), Amarinder Singh said the farmers should not be forced to subsidise the consumers, which they have been doing since long.
Amarinder Singh said MP Pratap Bajwa had already demanded a district status for Batala, in his letter dated August 11 and had cited Batala's historic importance and its connection with Guru Nanak Dev, who had married Mata Sulakhni in Batala in 1487.
A source in the security set up said that Srinagar alone recorded 16 terror-related incidents, 21 per cent of the total of 75 incidents reported from across the Valley till so far this year, leaving behind the traditional hotbed of terrorism of Pulwama, Anantnag and Shopian.
Congress chief spokesperson, Randeep Surjewala said in a statement, "The Khattar government has lost the confidence and the mandate of the people and it should leave. When your party can talk to the Taliban, why not farmers."
Researchers from National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, under the Ministry of Health; CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, Delhi, and University of Cambridge in the UK examined how the Delta variant was able to evade the immune response.
