Former Haryana CM Hooda criticises BJP over SYL case

Chandigarh: Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has said that the Haryana government should stop playing the game of meetings and file contempt proceedings against the Punjab government in the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) case as the Supreme Court has already decided in favour of Haryana. He said it is now the responsibility of the Union government to get Haryana its due share of water.

“The court had handed over the responsibility of getting Haryana’s share of water to the central government. There is a BJP government both in Haryana and at the Centre. In such a situation, Haryana should have got its share of water by now, but this could not happen due to the anti-Haryana attitude of the BJP, “ he stated.

“Congress repeatedly said that the Punjab government is disobeying the decision of the Supreme Court, but the Haryana government kept wasting time by holding fruitless meetings. It was during the BJP government’s tenure the already-built SYL canal in Punjab was filled up. This government had also filled up the Dadupur-Nalvi canal built during the Congress government to recharge the groundwater level,” he added.

Hooda said the farmers of Haryana are continuously getting buried under debt. “Today, every farmer in the state has a debt of Rs 1,82,922. Whereas the average debt of a farmer in the whole country is Rs 74,000. Haryana is at No. 4 in the country in terms of debt-ridden farmers, because the rates of fuel, fertilizers, seeds, medicines have increased wildly during the BJP government, but the rate of farmers’ crops has not increased. As soon as it came to power, the BJP refused to implement the Swaminathan report, going back on its election promise,” he noted.