Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today accused opposition parties of indulging in "cheap political gimmicks" on the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue while expressing confidence that the state would get its due share of water.
Seeking to corner the Congress on the issue, Khattar said its leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Kuldeep Sharma should ask their party president Sonia Gandhi to speak to Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh who has been claiming that he would not let the waters flow to Haryana through the SYL Canal.
"Earlier the opposition parties criticised me for not meeting Narendra Modi on vital matters like SYL canal, GST and farmers' issues. Now I have discussed all these issues with the Prime Minister but they are criticising me for not taking them along," he said here.
Khattar said that by not trusting an elected government and the chief minister, the opposition was insulting the people of the state.
Referring to statements by the Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and other leaders on the SYL issue, Khattar questioned who they were to prevent Haryana from getting its waters.
The Supreme Court has already delivered its verdict in favour of Haryana and another decision is awaited, he said.
"Thereafter, no one would be able to stop the construction of the SYL canal," he added.
He accused the Congress of shedding crocodile tears by claiming that no development was taking place in the state.
He challenged the Congress leaders to go to the masses to see for themselves whether development was taking place or not.
Khattar said that in the last about two-and-a-half years, about 3,500 announcements were made and work on 44 per cent of these has been completed. The remaining would be completed within next one year, he added.
Comparing it to the performance of the earlier Congress regimes, Khattar said that 6,400 announcements were made in ten years.
Khattar claimed that if his government got a chance to rule for ten years, more than 10,000 announcements would be made and each of them would be fulfilled.
The chief minister ridiculed Congress leaders for claiming that his government had gone on an inauguration spree.
Whenever any foundation stone is laid or a project is inaugurated, it is leaders from the Congress who don't let go any opportunity to claim that it was their project, he said.
Raising questions, Khattar asked what was the necessity for the Congress government to announce projects in 2013, which were later not completed despite the fact that they had one year time from November 1, 2013 to October 2014.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)