DW BUREAU / chandigarh The Shiromani Akali Dal on Tuesday gave an ultimatum to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to withdraw his statement seeking land for the state Vidhan Sabha, saying it amounted to surrendering Punjab's rights on Chandigarh. The SAD asked Mann to apologise for the same failing which it would approach all political parties in the state to launch an aggressive campaign to secure the rights of Punjab. Terming the Centre's decision to allot land in Chandigarh to Haryana to build an additional building of the Vidhan Sabha as "illegal", the SAD core committee noted that Union Minister Amit Shah did not have any authority to make this allotment without consulting all stakeholders. Badal on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the party's core committee, a party release said here. The committee said, "The manner in which the chief minister recently tried to allegedly brazen it out when asked why he had taken an anti-Punjab stance indicated that he was acting on the instructions of AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal who was ready to sacrifice the interests of Punjab to strengthen the party in Haryana". It demanded the chief minister to explain his stand on all issues of Punjab by July 20, including the Bhakra-Beas Management Board (BBMB), implementation of central pay scale for Chandigarh employees and attempt to convert Panjab University into a central university. If this was not done, a three-member committee comprising SAD leaders Balwinder Singh Bhundur, Prem Singh Chandumajra and Sikander Singh Maluka, who also attended the core committee meeting, would approach all political parties to launch an aggressive campaign on this issue, it said. The core committee also decided to hold a protest at the residence of the Delhi chief minister on July 20. "The 'dharna' in front of the Delhi chief minister's residence will be held to protest Arvind Kejriwal's refusal to sign Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar's release orders for eight months," said the statement. Badal had earlier accused Kejriwal of blocking the release of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar again, a 1993 Delhi bomb blast case convict. The core committee also expressed grave concern at the manner in which freedom of speech and expression "are being throttled by banning songs which solely express the sentiments of people". "The committee noted that there was nothing objectionable in either the SYL song sung by the late Sidhu Moosewala or the 'Rihaee' song sung by Kanwar Grewal, which had been banned by the Centre," the statement said. It decided that as an act of solidarity with both singers and the ideas they espoused, Youth Akali Dal (YAD) workers will take out tractor marches to all district headquarters blaring both songs as a sign of protest against this censorship, said the SAD release. The core committee also condemned an AAP minister's call for forming a tribunal to adjudicate on the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal issue in a meeting of the Northern Zonal Council and termed the move as "a conspiracy to give away Punjab's river waters to Haryana through hook or by crook." (editor@dailyworld.in)