Dal Khalsa flays Amarinder over SYL canal issue
Chandigarh: Dal Khalsa on Tuesday strongly criticised Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh who predicted "terror" revival threat in the state over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue, and blamed him for exaggerating the situation. Taking Amarinder to task for allegedly raising the bogey of terror, Dal Khalsa party head Harpal Singh Cheema reminded the former chief minister that the first practical action to effectively stop the construction of the SYL canal was taken up by Babbar Khalsa militants in 1990s. Had it been left to traditional mainstream politicians, the SYL would have been a reality long back, he said. He said the digging of SYL was next to impossible now adding it is not the SYL issue that had the potential to trigger the revival of armed rebellion but the continued "injustice" being meted out to Punjab by all organs of the state. He said if Amarinder was seriously concerned about any possible revival of militancy then he should work to find out respectable resolution to lingering Punjab problem. Cheema said Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) leader Abhay Chautala was creating chaos only to revive his political moorings, adding the Badal family have abandoned Punjab in this hour of crisis to felicitate their Haryana friend Om Parkash Chautala to play misadventure. He said given the chance, the people of Punjab were enough to deal with the likes of Chautala and protect its water resources from any outside aggression. — PTI
