Manohar Lal Khattar tells Arvind Kejriwal to stay neutral on SYL row

Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in a veiled warning asked his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday to remain neutral on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue and choose his words carefully.

Mr Khattar made the warning while interacting with mediapersons after the Budget Session of the Haryana Assembly here.

Replying to a question, Mr Khattar said like Haryana, Delhi was also affected by a similar issue. He said that Delhi also did not have its own sources of water and instead, sourced it from other states. Therefore, the carrier of water should remain safe. He said that as Haryana’s water carrier should remain safe in Punjab, Delhi’s water carrier should also be safe.

Replying to another question, Mr Khattar said land had not been released and no bill of any kind had been passed as yet. The bill has only been passed by the Punjab Assembly, it would not be considered to have been passed until the governor signs the bill. He said that all this did not have any bearing on the final outcome as this issue was being considered by the Supreme Court.

In reply to another question, Mr Khattar said the Haryana Assembly has passed a resolution in which the Central government has been asked to resolve the SYL issue at the earliest for protection of Haryana’s water. He hoped for support of the Central government on this issue.