Punjab Polls: Hooda won't campaign for Cong in Punjab unless SYL canal built

Former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Monday said he would not campaign for Congress in Punjab for the assembly polls unless the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal was constructed and the state’s share of water was released.

He said “interests of Haryana were supreme to me”.

“How can I campaign for Congress in Punjab unless Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal is constructed and Haryana’s share of water is released,” Hooda said while addressing a Congress rally in Shimla to protest against inconvenience caused to people due to demonetisation.

He said the SYL agreement was broken by former Punjab chief minister Captain Amrinder Singh.

“Unless Punjab assures that the agreement would be honoured and SYL would be constructed, how can I campaign in favour of Congress,” Hooda said.

Terming the demonetisation a “most erroneous decision after independence”, he said the people would give a befitting reply to “notebandi of government by votebandi in elections”.

“The people would pronounce their verdict on demonetisation in assembly elections of five states and later in Himachal. The impact of demonetisation on the economy would be visible soon and financial position would deteriorate,” the former chief minister said.

Claiming that farmers, small traders, labourers and poor people who were made to stand in queues are the most affected by demonetisation, Hooda said the decision was purportedly taken to weed out fake currency, choke the funding of terror outfits and unearth black money, but the government is shying away from telling that how much black money has been detected and how much fake currency destroyed.

Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government for talking about cashless economy, he said this experiment has failed even in advanced countries and how it would be successfully implemented in India with 6.50 lakh villages.

Hooda claimed that the GDP would be reduced by two to three per cent due to demonetisation, which would be ruinous “for our growing economy”.