Haryana parties to meet President, PM Modi over SYL

Chandigarh: Haryana held an all-party meeting here on Thursday, which resolved to call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek early implementation of Supreme Court verdict on the issue.

"We will try to seek time from the President and the Prime Minister today (Thursday) itself so that a delegation of all political parties can meet them at the earliest. I am sure the Centre will soon get the Supreme Court decision implemented so that the state's parched tracts get adequate water," Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar told the media after the meeting.

Leaders of Haryana's main opposition parties, the Indian National Lok Dal and the Congress, were among those who attended the meeting.

Khattar, who heads the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Haryana, said detailed discussions were held at the meeting on the Supreme Court's verdict on a Presidential Reference on the SYL issue, which went in favour of Haryana, as well as subsequent developments in Punjab.

Asked if Haryana will also convene a special assembly session on the SYL issue, as Punjab did on November 16, the Haryana Chief Minister said it was decided for the time being to meet Mukherjee and Modi.

The Punjab assembly, on Wednesday, directed the Punjab government, its council of minister and government officers and officials not to hand over land to any agency for SYL canal construction.

The assembly also resolved that the Punjab government should levy charges on Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi for the water supplied to the non-riparian states over the past many years.

The Punjab government earlier declared it will neither accept the Supreme Court verdict nor implement it. It said Punjab did not have a single drop of water to spare. 

"The Punjab Cabinet decisions or Punjab Vidhan Sabha (assembly) resolutions have no meaning and they would be automatically treated as repealed," Khattar said.

Asked about Punjab's directions to its officers not to obey any central government decision on the issue, Khattar said the country is run by its Constitution.

"All their (Punjab) decisions on this issue are against the Constitution," he added.