Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal on Sunday said that in a democratic country, States should not function arbitrarily and that Punjab would have to give up its stubbornness over the issue of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal and water-sharing.
“The Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Haryana. The court had asked the Chief Ministers of both the States to sit down and decide but Punjab did not agree to give Haryana its rightful share,” said Mr. Lal, addressing a gathering at Narnaul, during a ‘jal adhikar’ rally.
He added that he was hopeful that Haryana would definitely get its rightful share of water.
Mr. Lal assured farmers that he would quit politics if there was any kind of threat to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) guarantee. He said that the government is thinking beyond MSP through the new agricultural laws. “MSP will continue like before. Similarly, ‘mandis’ will continue to function as well. Some people are agitating politically, they are not farmer-friendly. We should talk about SYL water with the farmers of Punjab sitting on the border (Delhi),” said Mr. Lal.
The Chief Minister said that all three new agricultural laws are for the benefit of farmers and alleged that the opposition parties were trying to deceive the farmers. “The opposition does not want the farmers’ income to increase. In 2010, a committee was formed by the previous government under the chairmanship of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Mr. Hooda had advocated for reform in the APMC Act, but today the same opposition parties are sitting on the border and provoking the people,” he said.
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