Battle over SYL Canal escalates, threatens to engulf Capital

The standoff over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal escalated further on Thursday with MLAs of opposition INLD in north Indian state of Haryana and Congress in Punjab on Thursday attempting to storm each other’s Assemblies as the dispute threatened to embroil Delhi whose Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal opposed construction of the canal.

INLD legislators, led by Leader of Opposition Abhay Singh Chautala and state unit president Ashok Arora, went to the Punjab Assembly, which is in session, and staged a protest at its gate against a bill passed on Monday by Punjab Assembly that provides for returning 3,928 acres of land acquired for construction of SYL canal to original landowners.

In a counter action, Congress MLAs of Punjab tried to barge into Haryana Assembly but were stopped by the watch and ward staff.

While the protest by Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) legislators lasted for quite some time, the Punjab Congress MLAs’ action was a brief event.

A scuffle broke out between the INLD MLAs and watch and ward staff outside the Punjab Assembly.

Punjab and Haryana, with common capital Chandigarh, have Assemblies in the same complex here.