SAD to play water card at Moga rally

BATHINDA: The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will be looking to drum up support for its election campaign by raking up the emotive Satluj-Yamuna link (SYL) canal issue at its ‘Pani Bachao, Punjab Bachao’ rally in Moga on Thursday.
With 1 lakh people expected to turn up for the rally to be addressed by chief minister Parkash Singh Badal on his 89th birthday, the SAD-BJP alliance is also going to use the event as a platform to attack the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), said a senior leader of the party.The rally, so far, has been projected as a state government event organized to oppose the Supreme Court ruling in favour of Haryana on the SYL canal dispute.
SAD spokesperson Manjinder Singh Sirsa told TOI that the rally would be mostly centered on the “all-important issue of saving Punjab waters”. “But, obviously, it will also be a platform for the fast-approaching assembly elections,” he said. “The SAD-BJP government has already made it clear that Punjab has no surplus water, and there is no question of giving more water to neighbouring states even if the court feels otherwise. The CM, at the rally, will further make announcements on the issue.”
Punjab agriculture minister Tota Singh, for whom the success of the rally is a prestige point, said more than a lakh people would attend the rally to “appreciate the stand taken by SAD-BJP government in safeguarding Punjab’s waters”. Tota Singh would also be trying to use the rally as a platform to enhance the chances of his son Barjinder Singh, who has been allotted the SAD ticket from Moga.
Jobless teachers threaten immolation
Two jobless teachers have threatened to immolate themselves at CM Parkash Singh Badal’s ‘Pani Bachao, Punjab Bachao’ rally if the state government did not organize a meeting with them before the event. Jashan Kumar from Fazilka and Tarun Aulakh from Mansa have cleared the Punjab State Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and had climbed atop a water tank near the SAD rally venue in Kili Chahlan village, Moga, on December 4.
Waste of public money: Cong
Punjab Congress has accused the SAD-BJP government of splurging public money and misusing official machinery for ‘Pani Bachao, Punjab Bachao’ rally in Moga. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the party said the state government was spending crores on the rally while beneficiaries of its much-touted Atta-Dal Scheme were still waiting for their quota ofrations for the last eight months. “While the common people, already reeling under a cash crisis after demonetisation, continue to wait endlessly for basic essentials, the Akali government has opened its coffers for Parkash Singh Badal's birthday celebrations on December 8,” the Congress said.