Chandigarh, June 04: Leader of opposition in Haryana Assembly Bhupinder Singh Hooda today accused Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and BJP-led government at the Centre of being "non-serious" in getting the remaining portion of the SYL canal falling in Punjab's territory completed. "If Chautala was serious about getting the SYL waters for Haryana then the INLD should have long back withdrawn its support to the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the Centre.

But both the state and the Central governments have not shown any intention or taken any steps to see that the canal is complete at the earliest," Hooda told reporters here.

Terming the SYL canal as the lifeline for people of Haryana, he said that said that second phase of the Jal Yudh (battle for water) will be started from Kaithal on June seven and a public meeting under the aegis of district Congress committee there will be organised to "pressurise the Centre to complete the portion of the SYL canal falling in Punjab's territory in accordance with the Supreme Court directions".

Alleging that the Chautala government had never shown interest to get the canal completed, he said, "the INLD MPs have never raised this issue even once in the parliament".

"This is the last opportunity with us to put pressure on the Centre to get the canal's portion falling in Punjab completed. If we fail to get it done now, maybe we will miss the bus for ever," he said.

Bureau Report