CHANDIGARH: Chief Minister Bhajan Lal last week said the Eradi Tribunal award on the apportionment of the RaviBeas waters between Punjab and Haryana was final and could not be reopened.

Talking to newspersons after Cabinet meeting here, he said the Punjab and the Haryana Governments had accepted the award.

Replying to a question about resumption of work on the SutlejYamuna Link canal in Punjab, he said several rounds of talks had been held with the Center and the Punjab Government on this issue and the work was expected to be resumed soon.

Bhajan Lal said he had written to his Punjab counterpart Beant Singh to order resumption of the canal work at the earliest.

Denying any deadlock on the canal issue, he said once the work stated the canal would be completed in eight months since most of the construction was over, barring some stretches and a portion of the Sirsa aqueduct near Ropar.

He described as “baseless” the statement of former Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal that he (Badal) had not received Rs 2 crore from the Haryana, Government for launching the canal work in 1978 when Bacal was the Chief Minister,

jajan Lal said it was a mater to record that Devi Lal, the then Haryana Chief Minister, had released two installments of Rs 1 crore each to the Punjab segment in 1977 and 1978and it was agreed at that time that Badal and Devi Lal would jointly launch the Construction of the canal in Punjab territory.

Bhajan Lal said however this did not materialize due to some reasons and the construction work of the canal in Punjab territory was launched by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in April 1929. He said 90% of the canal work was completed when Akali Dal leader Sugjit Singh Barnala was Chief Minister in Punjab, It was surprising that now the Akalis were opposing the completion of the canal at this stage, he said.

He also denied the corruption charges leveled by former Haryana Chief Minister Om Parkash Chautala and Bansi Lal against him relating to the auctioning of stone quarries in Faridabad and allotment of land to colonizers for setting up housing colonics in Gurgaon.

Bhajan Lal said he would quit politics if it was proved that there was even an iota of truth in these allegations.

 

Article extracted from this publication >>  August 18, 1995