Sukhbir to Mann: Withdraw UT land reply or face protest

Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday asked Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann to withdraw his statement on Chandigarh or be ready to face a full-scale agitation on the issue.
Asserting that Mann had dashed Punjab’s aspirations of regaining Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas of Haryana, Badal said, “Mann alone is responsible for the current crisis which has threatened Punjab’s hold on Chandigarh.”
Addressing a press conference, Badal said the chief minister had himself harmed the interests of the state during a meeting with the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana high court in which he demanded a separate piece of land for a high court building of the state. “This demand gave Haryana a chance to seek land for a separate assembly in the Union territory,” he said. Badal said no Punjabi could surrender the interests of the state in this fashion. “It seems Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal has made him give this statement under a conspiracy to erode all standing rights of Punjab,” he said. He added: “We will not let this conspiracy succeed at any cost and have called an emergency meeting of the party’s core committee on July 12 to chalk out our next course of action.”
The SAD President also categorically told the central government that Chandigarh was an inalienable part of Punjab and that the party would not allow Haryana to take over any land in the UT to build a new assembly or high court. “We are ready to make any sacrifice for this,” he added. Badal also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to understand the sentiments of Punjabis and transfer Chandigarh to Punjab. He said the central government was at best a caretaker as far as Chandigarh was concerned with the issue having been decided in 1966 during the reorganisation of states and later by the Rajiv-Longowal Accord in 1985 which had been passed by Parliament as well as the Haryana assembly.
Sukhbir also detailed how Chandigarh had been established by uprooting Punjabi-speaking villages.