Water issue between Punjab and Haryana is reaching another level now. Yesterday leaders of various political parties in Punjab unanimously decided against not giving a single drop of water to Haryana.
All parties including opposition leaders in a rare show of unity ar an all party meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, rejected the order by the Bhakra Beas Management Board to release additional water to Haryana.
The parties empowered the Aam Aadmi Party government to chalk out the next course of action for “safeguarding the rights of Punjab on its waters”. The meeting, convened by the state government, lasted two hours.
State BJP chief Sunil Jakhar who was accompanied by senior party leader Manoranjan Kalia said they fully supported Punjab’s stance on the release of additional water to Haryana, which, they said, had exhausted its allocated share for the September 21-May 20 depletion period.
Jakhar reiterated that they had no water to spare for Haryana and that any injustice to Punjab would not be tolerated. He, however, said confrontation should be avoided at a time when the country was at odds with a hostile neighbor in the wake of the Pahalgam attack. “The water issue should have been settled through dialogue,” he said. Jakhar is learnt to have offered to broker a meeting with the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister on the water issue.