NEW DELHI: Indian home minister S.B.Chavan has given new arguments in favor of completing the Sude Yamuna Link canal by stating that more than Rs 500 crore had been spent on it and that this Money could not be allowed to be blocked. Haryana should get its Share of water from Punjab rivers, He asked Akali leader Prakash Singh Badal not to take to the path Of agitation against the canal, He Should be cautious about the agitation path. What would he Rain by agitation? Only more expenditure. The SY .L. canal constructing is a part of the Rajiv Longowal accord. Chavan who was responding to questions from a Punjabi daily of Chandigarh claimed that peace had been re Stored in Punjab although militants would continue to strike at isolated targets so long as Paki Stan was lending them support. The minister said that the Punjab problem was essentially between Punjab and Haryana and had very little to do with the central government. We are committed to implementing the Rajiv Longowal ac cord, it is as much relevant today as it was when it was signed in 1985. The accord was the only way out of the Punjab problem, he said.
Meanwhile, Akalis are keeping a total silence about the Indian insistence on enforcing the Rajiv Longowal accord. The Akalis so far had been feeding the Sikhs with the claim that the Rajiv Longowal accord was a boon to Sikhs and that it was being op posed by Haryana which itself showed that the accord was in favor of Punjab.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 27, 1993
