Chandigarh: Cutting across party lines Punjab MPs Ravneet Bittu (Congress), Bhagwant Mann (Aam Aadmi Party) and Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra (SAD-Badal) jointly raised Punjab’s river water issue in the Indian Parliament.
As per media reports raising the issue of Punjab river water Ravneet Bittu said that it was a sensitive issue and the Centre should not take a bias stand against Punjab. He also pointed out to critical state of Punjab’s ground water.
The issue was joined by Bhagwant Mann and Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, who urged the Centre to resolve the issue as per internationally accepted “riparian rule”.
Bhagwant Mann and Ravneet Bittu were also seen hitting each other and their parties. Bhagwant Mann said that the issued needs to be resolved as per riparian rule but the Congress party was responsible for loot of Punjab waters. He said that it was Congress party that started SYL canal under Indira Gandhi’s regime. He also referred to a newspaper advertisement clip going viral on social media that show that Capt. Amarinder had welcomed Indira Gandhi when she had laid foundation stone of SYL Canal at Kapoori near Patiala.
Ravneet Bittu said that the Aam Aadmi Party was a new party and it’s leaders does not know about the river water issue. He said that at the time when the construction of SYL had started the Punjab had “spare water” but now the state is running short of water. He, however, did not present any data to support his argument that the state had spare water in 1982.