SYL canal row: Haryana seeks paramilitary forces in view of INLD protest threat

Chandigarh: The Haryana government has sought around 1,000 paramilitary personnel from the Centre to deal with any law and order problem in view of the INLD’s protest on Monday over the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue.

Home secretaries, DGPs and a few other senior officers of Haryana and Punjab held a meeting here on Friday to prepare a strategy to avoid any untoward situation.

Haryana’s additional chief secretary (Home) Ram Niwas said both the states have decided to prepare a plan to maintain law and order on 10 July. Punjab DGP Suresh Arora said their priority is to maintain peace and order. “We will have another meeting,” he said. “We have sought 10 companies of paramilitary forces,” Haryana DGP BS Sandhu told PTI over the phone.

Sandhu said that there is a possibility the road being blocked at five or six places by the INLD activists on that day but the police has made adequate arrangements to ensure smooth flow of traffic.

On the sensitive areas, he said that though roads could be blocked at two places in Ambala and one place each in Dabwali, Kaithal and Jind but “the police administration is fully vigilant and the agitation would be resolved peacefully.”

Asked about the law and order situation in the districts adjoining Punjab, the Haryana DGP said that in a video conference held here on Friday, with all the Superintendents of Police and Commissioners of Police of the state, they have been directed to remain fully prepared to deal with the agitation.

Apart from this, Superintendents of Police of districts adjoining the borders of both the states have also spoken to each other to peacefully resolve the agitation through mutual cooperation.

DGP Sandhu appealed the INLD for peaceful agitation and cooperate with the police.

The officials, however, said that there are possibility of traffic being diverted on some roads if the INLD activists reached the national highway and tried to block it. People travelling from Punjab have to cross Haryana to go to Delhi and beyond.

Leader of the Opposition in the Haryana Assembly Abhay Singh Chautala had earlier said INLD workers “will not allow vehicles from Punjab to enter Haryana” if the Union government failed to implement the Supreme Court order on the SYL canal issue by 9 July.

Chautala, who is addressing meetings of party workers across the state to garner support for the 10 July protest, said “the SYL canal is the lifeline of the people of Haryana”.

“We will take this battle from streets to Parliament. We will continue our struggle until Haryana is given its rightful share of water,” he said at a meeting in Gurgaon on Thursday. He alleged that the BJP government in Haryana was adopting double standards on the issue.

“On the one hand, it makes big announcements for farmers and on the other, it does not even talk about the SYL canal… The Supreme Court has given an order in favour of Haryana,” he said.

In February, several INLD leaders, including Chautala, were stopped from marching into Punjab to undertake the digging of the SYL canal. Hundreds of INLD supporters from Haryana had in March flooded the Parliament Street in the heart of the national capital to protest over the SYL canal issue, prompting police to resort to baton charge.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Tuesday expressed hope that the contentious issue would be resolved through dialogue.