Will campaign in Punjab only if Capt assures SYL waters for Haryana: Hooda

Chandigarh : Former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Saturday said he would campaign for the Congress in the upcoming Punjab Assembly polls only if Capt Amarinder Singh gave him public assurance that he would give Haryana its due share in the SYL waters after coming to power.
“Capt Amarinder Singh was the CM when the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, that denied our state its due share of waters was passed by the Punjab Legislative Assembly. Hence, unless the Captain assures me publicly that he would give Haryana its due share, I cannot support him to the detriment of the state’s interests,” Hooda said while talking to The Tribune at his residence here.
Hooda accused INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala of misleading people on the issue of SYL saying Om Prakash Chautala was CM when Punjab passed the controversial legislation and he had offered that he was ready to volunteer for the digging of the canal, but the INLD supremo did not want to annoy his friend Parkash Singh Badal.
Hooda said he had postponed his campaign on the SYL issue as he hoped that the Union Home Secretary, who was told to place the status report by the Supreme Court, would submit an affidavit in Haryana’s favour on December 15. “Now, the case is scheduled to come up for hearing in the third week of January and if the Union Government failed to give any concrete assurance by then, I would hold a meeting of my workers at Jind and launch a campaign to mobilise people of the state,” said Hooda. The former CM also castigated Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar for failing to get an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi though he had assured this in the all-party meeting. Hooda termed Prime Minister Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) as open loot of farmers and alleged that the government was working as an agent of insurance companies.