DW BUREAU / Patiala Punjab health minister Chetan Singh Jauramajra has said that if Haryana government wants to set up a separate building for its Vidhan Sabha, it may do so in any part of Haryana but not in Chandigarh. He claimed that Chandigarh always belonged to Punjab and will remain so and the Haryana government will not be allowed to build an assembly building in Chandigarh. Talking to media persons in Samana in Patiala district last evening, he said, "if Haryana wants to build its own assembly they may do so in Panchkula, Faridabad or Kurukshetra but not in Chandigarh". He was asked to comment on Union Home Minister Amit Shah who on Saturday announced land for setting up an additional building for Haryana Vidhan Sabha in Chandigarh. Notably, at present, the Punjab and Haryana governments share the Vidhan Sabha complex which is next to the Punjab and Haryana Civil Secretariat in Union Territory of Chandigarh. However, the Punjab Minister said, "the entire assembly building also belongs to Punjab", a part of the assembly building complex was given to Haryana "with a feeling of brotherhood". Shah's announcement had drawn reaction from neighbouring Punjab with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealing to the Centre to allot land to Punjab in Chandigarh for setting up its own Vidhan Sabha building. However, Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal had sharply reacted to Mann's statement and said, "I am shocked that someone who calls himself the Chief Minister of Punjab can issue statements to give up Punjab's widely acknowledged and inalienable right on its Capital, Chandigarh. "The entire city belongs to Punjab and the Punjab CM is begging for a little space on our own land for Vidhan Sabha building. How can a Chief Minister of Punjab speak the language of Haryana on allotting land to Haryana?" Badal had asked. On the similar lines, Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta had also said the construction of an additional building didn't mean the state would leave its claim of rightful share in the existing State Assembly building which also houses the Punjab assembly. Haryana came into existence on November 1, 1966 and Chandigarh is the common capital of both states. The two states also have common buildings for the secretariat, Vidhan Sabha and the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Punjab and Haryana Saturday raised several issues including the vexed Sutlej Yamuna Link canal, appointment of members in Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and the nature of Panjab University at the 30th meeting of the Northern Zonal Council in Jaipur. Union Home Minister Amit Shah chaired the meeting. The aim of zonal council meetings is to resolve various interstate issues and those between the Center and states in a time-bound manner. On the decades-long SYL issue, Haryana reiterated its stand of seeking its share of water from Ravi-Beas river by completing SYL canal while Punjab maintained its stance of setting up of a tribunal for assessment of water volume in the two rivers. The SYL canal has been a bone of contention between Punjab and Haryana for several decades. Punjab has been demanding reassessment of the Ravi-Beas river water volume while Haryana has been seeking completion of the SYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet (MAF) of the river waters. At the Jaipur meeting, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar pointed out that the completion of the construction work of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal is long pending and a serious issue between the states of Haryana and Punjab. "Due to the non-completion of the SYL canal, surplus, unchanneled water of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas goes to Pakistan," Khattar said, according to an official release. He said Haryana has also been allotted a 3.50 million acre-feet share in the surplus water of Ravi-Beas as per the order of the Government of India dated March 24, 1976. As per the decision taken in the meeting of the Union Jal Shakti Minister on August 18, 2020, with the chief ministers of both the states on the direction of the Supreme Court to resolve the issue, Punjab is not taking further action, added the CM while demanding that the meeting of the CMs of both the states regarding the SYL issue should be held soon. Khattar also raised the issue of getting 700-1000 cusecs of less water even from the Bhakra main line canal. (editor@dailyworld.in)