Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Thursday appealed to the people of Punjab to gherao central teams who would come for the inspection of land for Satluj Yamuna Link canal in the state. Majithia’s appeal comes a day after the Supreme Court asked the Centre to carry out a survey of the portion of land allocated for the construction of a part of the SYL canal in the state and make an estimate of the extent of construction carried out there.


The party asserted that it was ready to sacrifice anything but would not let the canal come up in the state, as per a PTI report. 


If a survey team comes to the state, it should be gheraoed, said Majithia, adding that his party would not allow any such survey in the state. 


Opposing such a survey, he said half of Punjab's districts are in the dark zone due to severe depletion of groundwater and "water is not reaching our farmers." "Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal returned more than 4,500 acres of land acquired for the SYL canal back to the 21,000 original owners free of cost," he said.


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The SAD leader also asked Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party to clear their stance on “such an important issue” which concerned the very future of Punjab and its farmers.


Majithia condemned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar for maintaining a deafening silence. 


He also asked Jakhar to officially convey to the BJP-led Central government to desist from conducting any survey to identify land for the SYL canal.


He also accused the Punjab chief minister of deliberately weakening Punjab's case on the SYL canal issue in the Supreme Court as part of a "conspiracy".


The canal project was conceptualised for effective allocation of water from the Ravi and Beas rivers and envisaged a 214-km canal, of which a 122-km stretch was to be constructed in Punjab and the remaining 92 km in Haryana.


The Haryana part of the project was completed but Punjab, which launched the construction work in 1982, shelved it subsequently.