File contempt case against Punjab in SYL canal dispute: Ex-Haryana CM Hooda

Chandigarh, Aug 7 (IANS) Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday asked the Haryana government to stop “playing the game of holding meetings” with the Punjab government and file contempt proceedings against the latter in the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue as the Supreme Court has already decided in favour of Haryana.

Congress leader Hooda said “it is now the responsibility of the Union government to get Haryana its due share of water”.

Reacting to the meeting of Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers on the SYL, he said instead of playing the game of meetings, the BJP government should file a contempt case against the Punjab government in the court as the Supreme Court's decision has come in favour of Haryana a long time ago.

“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,” Hooda alleged.

The said Congress repeatedly said the Punjab government “is disobeying the decision of the Supreme Court, but the Haryana government kept wasting time by holding fruitless meetings”.

“It is the BJP government during whose 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 number four in the country in terms of debt-ridden farmers.”

He claimed the PM Crop Insurance Scheme has, in fact, made the farmers poor, and the insurance companies rich.

This disclosure was made in the answer to a question asked by member of Parliament Deepender Hooda in the Lok Sabha.

Deepender Hooda had asked the government in Parliament that why there was a massive 90 per cent drop in compensation payments under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in Haryana and what is the reason for this huge drop despite the continuous damage to crops?

--IANS

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