Chandigarh, June 20
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday expressed surprise at Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s statement claiming his state had complete water rights over the Indus Water system and urged the Centre to undo the historic injustice done with Punjab by the then Indira Gandhi government while deciding distribution of water of the Indus Water Basin.
In a statement released here, former Minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said it was a historical fact that the then Indira Gandhi government had done great injustice to Punjab while giving away a huge share of river waters to the non-riparian state of Rajasthan. “Every time, it is Punjab which suffers the most. River waters were snatched from Punjab,” he said.
Cheema said what Omar Abdullah was demanding was another attempt to do injustice to Punjab. He said that while filling the food bowl of the country, Punjab had lost its groundwater, which had fallen to alarming levels. He said the quantity of water in rivers had also gone down substantially. He said farmers of Punjab had taken huge debt on their shoulders to fulfil the food requirement of the country.