CHANDIGARH: A delegation of all political parties of Haryana led by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar will call on Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on March 24 regarding the issue of Sutlej-Yamuna-Link (SYL) canal.
An official spokesman said here on Wednesday that those to whom a written communication to this effect has been sent included Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma, finance minister Captain Abhimanyu, health minister Anil Vij, state BJP president Subhash Barala, state president of Indian National Congress Ashok Tanwar, leader of Congress Legislative Party Kiran Choudhary, former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state president of Indian National Lok Dal Ashok Arora, leader of Opposition Abhey Singh Chautala, state president of Shiromani Akali Dal Saranjit Singh Sotha, Shiromani Akali Dal MLA Balkaur Singh, state president of Bahujan Samaj Party Naresh Saaran, Bahujan Samaj Party MLA Tek Chand Sharma, Independent MLA Jai Parkash and Advocate General of Haryana Baldev Raj Mahajan.
He said that it was also decided that before proceeding to meet the Union Home Minister at 4 pm, the delegation would meet for a preliminary discussion at Haryana Bhawan in New Delhi the same day at 2.45pm.
The controversial 1981 water-sharing agreement came into being after Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966. For effective allocation of water, SYL canal link was conceptualised and both the states were required to construct their portions within their territories. Haryana constructed the portion of SYL canal in its territory. However, Punjab eventually stopped the work, leading to the spate of litigations.