 "Bhagwant Mann")
Opposition Congress on Tuesday asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to strongly present the state's case during a meeting convened by Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat on the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.
However, Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said Mann should skip the Wednesday meeting in New Delhi.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar will also attend the meeting
"As the leader of a party that has led historic Morchas to protect Punjab's lifeline, I warn you not to enter into any negotiations aimed at giving our river waters to any state in violation of the nationally and internationally accepted Riparian Principle," Badal said, addressing Mann.
The Punjab and Haryana CMs had earlier met here on October 14, 2022, but theyfailed to make a headway in the SYL canal issue, with Mann then saying his state does not have "a single drop of water to share".
In September, the Supreme Court had nudged the two chief ministers to meet and work out an amicable solution to the SYL canal row, which has been a bone of contention between the two states for several decades.
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Ahead of the meeting with Union Minister with the two CMs on Wednesday, senior Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa urged Mann to assert the legal rights of Punjab on the river water as per the riparian laws.
Bajwa said that instead of making "absurd" statements, Mann should put forward Punjab's case canal with strong legal arguments.
"In the previous meeting that took place on October 14... the Punjab CM had said that Punjab does not have a single drop of water to share. It was a very feeble argument, whether he presented it aggressively. With this statement, does he mean that Punjab should share water if it had surplus water?" the Leader of Opposition said.
Bajwa, in a statement, said that Mann should establish a legal right of Punjab on river water as per the riparian laws. "Mann should use this opportunity to rectify the previous mistakes and firmly present this case," he said.
On the other hand SAD chief Badal accused the Chief Minister of "not acting" as a custodian of Punjab and Punjabis' critical rights but functioning only as a facilitator of Arvind Kejriwal's electoral interests in Haryana and other states.
"In the year just passed, Bhagwant Mann spent all his time in promoting Kejriwal and his interests at the cost of Punjab and Punjabis. He has shown no desire to function as the Chief Minister of Punjab, choosing instead to repay Kejriwal debt for keeping him in CM's chair.
"He has found no time even to study the gravity of the problems being faced by the people of the state, leave aside making efforts to solve these," claimed the SAD chief.
"Any meeting convened to discuss the sharing of Punjab's river waters is in itself a gross violation of the Riparian Principle (according to which no state, through which the rivers do not flow, has any right on the waters of those rivers) and the Punjab Chief Minister must refuse to take part in it. If he does that, SAD will back him on this issue," said Badal.
Mann's participation would completely destroy Punjab's case and compromise its total and inalienable right over river waters, Badal further claimed.
Punjab has been maintaining that the quantum of water flowing through Ravi and Beas rivers had come down considerably, and therefore, it was seeking reassessment of the water's volume.
Haryana has been seeking completion of the canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet (MAF) water. It also demands that Punjab comply with the 2002 and 2004 Supreme Court orders for the completion of the canal.
Currently, the state is getting 1.62 MAF of the Ravi-Beas water. The SYL canal was conceptualised for effective allocation of water from Ravi and Beas rivers. The project envisaged a 214 km canal, of which 122 km was to be in Punjab and 92 km in Haryana.
Haryana has completed the project in its territory. Though Punjab took up the work in 1982, it was later shelved.
Haryana was carved out of Punjab on November 1, 1966.
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