Punjab congress MLAs to discuss SYL issue with President, says Amarinder

Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh on Friday said the party's state unit leaders, including MPs, will meet President Pranab Mukherjee to discuss the SYL issue and accused the SAD government of failing to protect the state's interest.

He questioned the right of Haryana over Ravi and Beas river water and demanded that a tribunal must be set up to assess the availability of water with Punjab before taking any decision on this matter.

"We are going to ask for time to meet President and we will apprise him of situation. The President knows everything (about the issue)...we will present him a memorandum," Amarinder said after all Congress MLAs submitted their resignation letters to Punjab Assembly Secretary here on Friday.

In a huge setback to the Akali Dal government in poll-bound Punjab, the Supreme Court on Thursday thwarted its attempt to wriggle out of the SYL canal water sharing agreement, saying it cannot "unilaterally" terminate it or legislate to "nullify" the verdict of the highest court.

Asserting that sharing of Ravi-Beas water is going to affect the lives of millions of Punjabis, Amarinder said, "It is essential that before any decision is taken on the quantum of water, a tribunal must be set up to find out what amount of water available."

Questioning the right of Haryana over the share in Ravi-Beas river water, he said, "If they claim SYL water then we can claim share in Yamuna water. There is 5.5 MAF of Yamuna water and we never claimed it as Punjab is not riparian to that water after the reorganisation in 1966."

On Khaps in Haryana have reportedly threatened to cut off Punjab from Delhi if the apex court ruling is not implemented, Amarinder said, "What right do they (Haryana) have? They are not riparian. If they think they want to pressurise through Khap we are not going to be pressurised."

Hitting out at the SAD-BJP rule, Amarinder alleged that the Parkash Singh Badal-led state government has failed to protect the interest of the state and claimed had SAD been serious on water sharing issue, Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and others MPs should have tendered their resignations.

"If they are so concerned about the impact of the SYL verdict on Punjab why have the Akali MPs not resigned from their parliamentary seats?" he asked and said, "Till they do so (resign), they really have no face to make allegations against others."

On whether the Congress MLAs will attend the special session on November 16 called by Punjab Cabinet over SYL issue, he said, "Once the resignation is given, the matter is over. It is up to the Speaker to accept it. We have nothing to do with the Assembly session. We will go to the people."

Amarinder also said that if Congress comes to power in Punjab, it will use "constitutional powers to amend and nullify the decision of the apex court".