Haryana CM Manohar Lal speaking during budget session of Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh
Chandigarh March 8, 2018:Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal, has appealed to the Opposition parties in the state not to politicize the issue of Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal and refrain from using it as a ladder to climb to power as the public is well aware of their political gimmics. He regretted that for the Opposition, SYL only means “Satta Yu hi Lunga”.
Manohar Lal was replying to the debate on the Governor’s Address on the fourth day of the Budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha, today.
Reiterating the resolve of the present state government to get every single drop of its share in the river waters through the SYL, he offered to convene an all-party meeting to draw line of action on this issue.
He said that as a result of the persistent efforts made by the present government, the Supreme Court had given its decision in favour of Haryana but the execution order was awaited from the court without which work on the canal could not be started. The state government has got ownership of the land for SYL and now the government is to take its possession.
Without naming any political party, the Chief Minister said he would like to ask the then party in power as to why they did not get execution order from the SC despite the fact that the apex court had given judgment in favour of Haryana in 2002.
In fact, it is due to the lackadaisical attitude of the then Haryana Government that the Punjab Government passed the Punjab Termination of Agreement Act, 2004 which was unconstitutional. As a result of this, the SYL issues remained pending in the SC for more than ten years.
The Chief Minister said the Congress remained in power for ten consecutive years both at Centre and in the state from 2004 to 2014 but did not make any efforts to secure the execution orders from the SC. But we are seriously fighting on this issue.
Apart from leading an all-party delegation to the President of India and the Home Minister on this issue, he has also written a letter to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, requesting him to intervene in the matter, the Chief Minister added.