Reprimanding Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament from Sangrur Bhagwant Mann for terming the water dispute between Punjab and Haryana a fight between the Congress and the Akalis, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee (PPCC) president Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday sought to know as to what was the standpoint of Mann and his party's national convener Arvind Kejriwal.
"I would like to ask Bhagwant Mann, you are a Punjab party; you should have stand on this;what is your stand? What is Kejriwal's stand? He is with Haryana or Punjab," asked Amarinder.
He said calling it a fight between the Akalis and the Congress was absolutely wrong, because it's a fight between Punjab and Haryana.
Elaborating on his statement, Capt said, "When Punjab was divided in 1966, Punjab got 105 lakh acres and Haryana got 80lakh acres, while the flow series at that time was 70 million acre feet of water. However, the Irani Commission made it to 90 million acre feet on its own and increased a bit the water allocation to Punjab. Despite that the water for erstwhile Punjab also included Yamuna water from Tajewala hydraulics which was 5.2."
"So at the end, Punjab got 105 lakh acre and 8 million acre feet of water, while Haryana was given 80 lakh acres with 12 million acre feet of water; is this justice," he asked.
When asked whether he was planning a change in the PPCC, he said the PPCC would remain more or less the same, while they could bring about some changes at the district level.