SYL: CMs won’t water down stands

With Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala refusing to hold talks with his Punjab counterpart over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) issue, ...

With Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala refusing to hold talks with his Punjab counterpart over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) issue, Amarinder Singh today said his state would soon move the Supreme Court.

With the court deadline of January 15 to Punjab to finish its part of the SYL canal approaching, Chautala had written to Amarinder yesterday, turning down the latter’s request for a meeting. If Punjab fails to comply with the SC order, the Chautala government can either move for contempt of court or press the Centre to immediately start construction of the canal. The SC had earlier directed the Central Government to take up construction of the canal if Punjab failed to complete its part by the stipulated deadline.

The Haryana government has, however, indicated that it would first try to reach a consensus on the issue before it decides on any further strategy. Chautala has called an all-party meeting on January 14 and a final decision is expected to be taken then.

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However, the Punjab government doesn’t seem to be in any mood to relent. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on economic reforms and policies here today, Amarinder reaffirmed that Punjab wouldn’t start construction of the canal despite the deadline.

He castigated the media for highlighting the SYL issue ‘‘in a wrong way’’ and said they would be proved wrong when the case was presented before the SC. Refraining from announcing the date of approaching the court, he added: ‘‘Our legal team can go to court any day.’’

According to Amarinder, ‘‘Haryana has got its rightful share of water from the Yamuna-Tajewala headworks. I don’t understand why Haryana is interested in taking more water.’’ For the defence of the rights of the people of Punjab, Amarinder added, he could go to any level.

The Chief Minister also denied having received any letter from Chautala refusing talks and said he had read about it only in the papers. ‘‘But this enabled me to know the attitude of the Haryana Chief Minister on the matter,’’ he concluded.

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The Punjab Chief Minister had written to the Prime Minister last week to intervene to resolve the SYL issue and a copy of the letter was sent to Chautala. But the Haryana Chief Minister is also under tremendous pressure at home to show some resolve on the canal. State Congress president Bhajan Lal has refused to attend the all-party meeting called by Chautala on the matter. In his letter to Amarinder, Chautala said a meeting between the two would hardly serve any purpose.

Terming most of the issues raised in the letter by Amarinder to the PM as irrelevant, Chautala declined to express his views on transfer of Chandigarh to Punjab and Hindi-speaking areas to Haryana, the proposed Yamuna basin allocations or the Sharda-Yamuna link, and stated that a comment on them would be out of context in reference to the SYL deadline.

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