JIND: The Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal has said that Chandigarh will not be transferred {0 Punjab without transferring the areas of Abohar and Fazilka simultaneously to Haryana and making the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal functional.

While addressing a huge public meeting at village Gang then 30 km from Jind on Feb.13 he assured the people that the interests of Haryana were safe in the hands of the Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao.

He said that the Prime Minister had asked the Punjab Chief Minister to complete the remaining portion of SYL canal in Punjab.

He added that he had already held six to seven meetings with Beant Singh in this regard and he was hopeful that the work on the in al would begin soon. While praising Beant Singh Minister for his wisdom he added that the Punjab Chief Minister would not like the precious water to continue flowing to Pakistan.

Bhajan Lal said that the Central Government had sanctioned the construction of two dams of Renuka and Kishau on river Yamuna. With the construction of these two dams the problem of drinking water in Delhi would be solved.

While referring to the increasing and for power in the stile he did that an American firm had signed a MOU to set up 100 MW

Thermal Power Plant at Hisar Whereas 820 MW Gas based power plant at Faridabad would be set up with Japanese collaboration.

The Prime Minister had already laid the foundation stone of a Thermal Power Plant at Yamuna agar. Another 210 MW unit of thermal power generation would be commissioned within a year at Panipat he said. While criticizing the previous government for not initiating any new power generation plant during their tenure Bhajan Lal said that the power generation capacity would be more than double in next five years. Earlier the Union Minister of State for Law Hans Raj Bharadwaj lauded Bhajan Lal for ushering prosperity in the state

Bharadwaj said that the Congress was always sympathetic to the farmers and had always worked for their upliftment. He said that the Dunkel proposals were not antifarmer. He said that Bhajan Lal would get the SYL canal completed and more waters would flow to Haryana

Article extracted from this publication >> February 18, 1994