Reiterating Haryana's claim on Chandigarh, the Haryana Chief Minister, Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday asked Punjab to make new Chandigarh its capital, leave Chandigarh to Haryana and co-operate in solving the waters issue by sitting across the table.
Khattar was speaking at a panel discussion on the holistic development of the tri-city that is Panchkula, Chandigarh and Mohali here, today. Punjab Governor and Administrator of Union Territory, Chandigarh, VP Badnore and Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh were also present at panel discussion.
"Both Haryana and Punjab should co-operate with each other to resolve various inter-state water issues in the interest of people of both states. Punjab should not make it a prestige issue. Issues related to water between states can be solved by dialogue," Khattar said.
"I did not like to refer to the waters issue on this platform as the development of tri-city was the main focus of today's panel discussion but the remarks made earlier by the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt. Amarinder Singh, have forced him to make a comment on this," the Haryana Chief Minister said.
While describing Punjab as an elder brother of Haryana, Khattar said Haryana faced serious water crisis as compared to Punjab. More area under the dark zone falls in Haryana than in Punjab, and, at some places, the underground water level has gone down to 1,500 feet.
Stressing the need for water conservation, the Chief Minister said he had recently written a letter to his Punjab counterpart to join hands in checking the wasteful flow of Ravi waters to Pakistan by constructing dams and reservoirs to utilise the waters and solve the crisis in both states.
The issue of Haryana getting its share of river water through the Hansi-Butana Canal is also hanging fire since long. Resultantly, the districts of southern Haryana, especially Mahendergarh, Rewari and Nuh, are facing water scarcity, he said.
"Chandigarh indisputably belonged to Punjab," Amarinder Singh today asserted as he rejected Khattar's suggestion. "There was no question of agreeing to Khattar's proposal."
The Punjab chief minister was responding to questions at an event.
Mr Singh asserted that Punjab, being the only state without a capital, had a historical right over Chandigarh. Various accords in the past had given Chandigarh to Punjab but they were, unfortunately, not implemented, he added.
Asserting that Punjab needed a capital city, the Chief Minister pointed out that it was possibly the only state in the world without its own capital.
Haryana being a new state, he said, it should be assisted to set up its own capital, and Chandigarh, should be given to Punjab, he added.
Haryana was carved out of Punjab on November 1, 1966.
