GURDASPUR: Punjab water, would not flow into the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal as the state had no surplus water to share with Haryana, said the Chief Minister, Harcharan Singh Brar, here Sept. 8th. Ad dressing a public rally organized by local MLA and Labor and Employment Minister Khushal Bahl, Brar flayed the Akali leader Prakash Singh Badal for sacrificing the interest of the state to strengthen his personal relationship with the then chief minister of Haryana, Devi Lal, by signing the agreement for the construction of SYL canal to take Punjab water to Haryana.
The Chief Minister said that if the agreement was implemented, 12 to 14 lakh acres of land in the state would go barren. He would never allow it to happen, he declared. Brar said that during the paddy sowing season 500 villages were provided with 24hour power supply and assured that next year all the 12,000 villages of the state would get power round the clock. He expressed sat is faction over the work done on the Dhussi Bund along the Ravi by spending a sum of Rs. 10 crore. The Chief Minister said that the state government has released a sum of Rs. 1.5 crore to widen, deepen and straighten the Sakhi nullah.
Brar said that the state government has bought land in Bombay to make a dry port to export the surplus crops from the state. He assured the farmers that the payment of arrears for the sugar cane supplied to the Batala and Gurdaspur cooperative sugar mills would soon be made. He stressed the need for encouraging the technical education and urged the youth to adopt self-employment in case they don’t get government jobs. Listing the achievements Brar said that he had announced free education to girls up to 10 + 2 and in ITT’s and engineering courses. He announced that the panchayats and block samitis and zila parishads would soon get more powers to function independently for the success of democracy. Commenting on the SGPC elections, Brar urged the people to elect candidates of high moral character. He termed the Akali BJP alliance as unholy and short lived.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 11, 1996
