category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU chandigarh Police on Tuesday used a water cannon to disperse Shiromani Akali Dal workers marching towards Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann s official residence here over the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leaders led by party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal slammed the Mann government for having failed to safeguard the rights of Punjab in river waters. Several other leaders including former MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, former ministers Bikram Singh Majithia, Daljit Singh Cheema and senior SAD leader Balwinder Singh Bhundar also joined the protest held outside the party headquarters here. Police had raised barricades to prevent Akali workers from heading towards the chief minister s residence. When protesters tried to break through barricades, police used the water cannon to disperse them. Later, police detained party leaders including Badal, Majithia and Cheema and SAD workers. Addressing the party workers here, SAD president Badal said they wanted to go to the residence of Mann for a debate on Punjab issues with the chief minister which he challenged all opposition leaders a few days back. He said police did not allow them to head toward the CM s residence. The chief minister challenged me to a debate on the SYL which I accepted and even announced that I would come to his residence today to debate all facets of the case. I thought the chief minister will receive us in the same manner in which former CM Parkash Singh Badal used to meet protesters coming to his residence including Bhagwant Mann and the AAP leadership. But he chose to flee to Madhya Pradesh with Arvind Kejriwal rather than facing me and the SAD, said Badal.At the protest site, the SAD leaders even brought a chair with a sticker, mentioning mukh mantri , (chief minister) Punjab, pasted on it and said the CM ran away from the debate. On October 8, CM Mann had challenged the BJP, Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal for an open debate on issues relating to the state on November 1. Badal slammed the successive Congress governments in 1955 and 1976 for sharing the state s river waters with Rajasthan and Haryana. He said former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal tried to correct this injustice by filing a case in the apex court challenging Article 78 of the Reorganization Act which bestowed power to the central government to allocate water resources to the new states. However, former prime minister Indira Gandhi, in 1981, prevailed upon (the then chief minister) Darbara Singh to withdraw this case from the Supreme Court and agree to construction of the SYL canal, he said. Badal slammed the Mann government over the SYL issue, claiming that the state government told the Supreme Court that it was ready to build the canal but the opposition parties were not allowing it. Lashing out at the Arvind Kejriwal-led party, Badal claimed, the AAP is readying to give more of the state s river waters to Haryana and Rajasthan to derive political advantage in the forthcoming assembly elections. Badal also lashed out at the Mann government over several issues including for the alleged deteriorating law and order and rising state s debt. The SAD president alleged that every section of society had been betrayed by the AAP government which had not fulfilled any of the promises made to Punjabis. He said the government had failed to fulfil its promise to give Rs 1,000 per month to all women in the state, besides unemployment allowance and old age pension allowance of Rs 2,500 per month each, regularization of all contractual employees, revival of the old pension scheme, wiping out of the drug menace and an end to VVIP culture. Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party s Haryana unit vice president Anurag Dhanda on Tuesday took on both BJP and Congress on the SYL canal issue, asking what stopped their party-led regimes from resolving the issue for decades. When BJP-led government ruled at the Centre, in Punjab (in alliance with erstwhile ally SAD) and in Haryana at the same time, why they did not resolve the issue then. Why they kept doing politics over the issue for decades, Dhanda said responding to a question on SYL issue at a press conference here. They should answer and clear their stand, he asserted. We also want to know what is BJP s stand in Punjab and in Haryana (over the issue)...we (AAP) are not moving with any baggage, we never did politics on such issue, he said. BJP, Congress both got chance for decades. Why did they not resolve it. Why they let the issue keep lingering and only to do politics over it, he said. Taking on the Aam Aadmi Party, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had at a press conference here on Friday accused them of not having any clear stand on SYL issue. When asked that Khattar had offered Haryana unit of AAP to hold media interaction at Haryana Niwas here, a state government property, if they have to talk of Haryana s interest, Dhanda said. (editor dailyworld.in)