AAP's 'Kisan Mazdoor Khet Bachao Yatra' in Haryana to start from Sep 5

The Aam Aadmi Party will begin its over a week-long “Kisan Mazdoor Khet Bachao Yatra” from Rohtak on September 5, party leader Sushil Gupta said on Friday, while accusing the BJP-led dispensations at the Centre and in Haryana of showing an apathetic attitude towards farmers.

He said the yatra will cover nearly 4,000 km and stand in solidarity with farmers who are agitating against the farm laws.

''The AAP is starting 'Kisan Mazdoor Khet Bachao Yatra', which will cover all 90 assembly constituencies in Haryana. It will start on September 5 from Sir Chhotu Ram's memorial in Rohtak and culminate on September 13 in Palwal, from where Mahatma Gandhi was arrested during the freedom struggle,'' Gupta, a Rajya Sabha MP, told reporters here.

Replying to questions on the Sutlej-Yamuna link canal issue, he said, “Our clear stand is that whatever is the Supreme Court's decision, we are with it.” Asked if the AAP comes to power in Punjab, will it give Haryana's share of water from the SYL or not, Gupta said, “I am saying when the Supreme Court has ruled, the state governments have no right to interfere.” “Whatever the court says, we have to abide by it,” he added.

Haryana has been seeking the completion of the canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre feet of river waters.

It has asserted that Punjab should comply with the 2002 and 2004 Supreme Court orders for the completion of the SYL canal for its share of the Ravi-Beas waters.

However, opposing the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal project, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had last year warned that “Punjab will burn” if the state is forced to share water with Haryana.

SYL has been a contentious issue between the two states with the Punjab portion of the canal still incomplete. The construction began in 1982.

Punjab had earlier demanded a reassessment of the Ravi-Beas river water volume, while Haryana has been seeking completion of the SYL canal to get its share.

Lashing out at the BJP-led Haryana government, Gupta referred to the recent Karnal lathicharge incident and alleged that “it has committed excesses on farmers as was witnessed during the British time”.

He claimed that it is not for the first time that the state government has ordered lathicharge on farmers.

“Now, their officers are even giving orders to break heads of farmers,” he said.

Gupta, who is the AAP's co-incharge of Haryana affairs, said farmers have been agitating against the farm laws for over nine months, but the government was not concerned about their plight.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)