Chautala to convene all-party meeting on SYL

CHANDIGARH: Haryana Chief Minister OmPrakash Chautala on Monday stated that he would soon convene an all-partymeeting to convince the opposition of the need to jointly meet Prime MinisterManmohan Singh seeking an early completion of the Punjab portion of theSatluj-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in the light of the recent Supreme Court rulingon the issue.Speaking at a press conference here, Chautala said theruling party would also move a resolution in the ensuing Assembly session urgingthe Central government to complete the canal at the earliest.Askedif the state government had chalked out any action programme to put pressure onthe Centre for an early completion of the canal, Chautala said there was no needof any pressure because the court in its ruling had left no scope for anyambiguity on the construction of the Punjab portion of the canal.Toa query as to what would be his government''s course of action if the Centrefailed to implement the court ruling in letter and spirit, Chautala said thematter was now between the apex court and the Centre, it was for the former todecide about the course of action.When asked to comment on Punjab''sstand that the ground realities had changed and it had no surplus Ravi-Beaswater to give to any state, Chautala observed that the Punjab government hadbeen making such misleading statements for quite sometime. "Supreme Court knowsthe reality and that is why it has directed the Centre to get the Punjab portionof the canal constructed," he stated adding that the proposed move of the Punjabgovernment to file a revision petition in this case was meaningless at thisjuncture.Appealing to opposition parties to avoid taking credit forthe Supreme Court ruling as this sort of approach could harm the interests ofthe state, Chautala urged newly elected Congress MPs from Haryana to meet thePrime Minister urging him to get the canal completed at the earliest. "I will bethe first person to give credit to Congress MPs in writing for all this. Thereis no denying that my party today has no representative in the Lok Sabha. Butthe Supreme Court ruling on the canal issue will certainly benefit it infuture", observed Chautala.Taking a dig at former Prime ministers,Chautala said SYL issue had been politicised by these leaders in the past, buthe was confident that Manmohan Singh, who was a statesman, would get the courtruling implemented at the earliest.