Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Thursday accepted the resignation of Deputy Leader of Congress Amarinder Singh, reported PTI. The Punjab Congress chief had tendered his resignation from the Lower House to Mahajan on Wednesday.
“I have accepted his resignation with effect from November 23,” she said. Singh is the Congress’ chief ministerial candidate for the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections.
On November 11, Singh and all 42 legislators of the party had resigned from the Punjab Assembly to protest against the apex court striking down a state law that dismisses a pact to share water with five other states through the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal. Singh said he decided to quit Lok Sabha “as a mark of protest against the deprivation of the people of my state of the much-needed Sutlej river water.”
Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal had called for a special Assembly session to discuss the SYL dispute, in which Singh had refused to participate. The session began on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court in its verdict on November 11 ordered a status quo on the resolution passed by the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party government, through which the Punjab government had denotified the land acquired to construct the canal in order to return the plots to farmers.
The Centre will now take over the construction of the conduit meant to distribute water among Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Delhi.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!