By IANS,
New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday was told that Punjab’s application seeking to restrain Haryana from constructing a four-km wall along a canal was the fallout of competitive politics between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his predecessor Amarinder Singh.
Haryana plans to construct a four-km concrete wall and concrete lining of an embankment of Hansi-Butana canal.
Seeking the dismissal of Punjab’s application with costs, Haryana said that Punjab’s application seeking to restrain it was without merit.
While declining to go into the merit of the application as the matter was being heard by another bench, the apex court vacation bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Swatanter Kumar gave Punjab a week to respond to Haryana’s reply to the former’s application seeking a stop on the canal work.
The court granted time to Punjab to file its rejoinder after senior counsel P.P. Rao, appearing for the state, requested the bench.
Haryana said it was carrying out concrete work on that portion of the Hansi branch and Butana Multi-Purpose Link Canal (Hansi-Butana MPLC) that was damaged during the 2010 floods.
Haryana said that the entire action, including a letter written by Badal to his Haryana counterpart Bhupinder Singh Hooda, flowed from the May 17 statement of Amarinder Singh, in which he called upon the state government to move the apex court against concrete work being carried out on the canal.