The statements on Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) canal water by the Punjab Chief Ministers from time to time failed to bring any result in-spite of number of meetings held in past years to solve this long pending issue although Supreme Court of India directions in favour of Haryana state government, but the issue remained inconclusive since a long time. According to information, last meeting in this regard was held in New Delhi in which Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Haryana and senior officials of both states participated. After the meeting, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said no consensus was reached in the meeting. He said the Supreme Court in its decision had announced that SYL canal should be constructed, but instead of discussing this pivotal issue, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his administrative wing were asserting that there is no surplus water in the state.Whereas a separate tribunal was set up for discussing issues related to water sharing and distribution of water to be done according to the recommendation of the tribunal, Haryana Chief Minister said that the Punjab government is not accepting Supreme Court’s decision wherein the Act brought by the Punjab government in 2004 has not been implemented. Punjab CM  said the 2004 Act is completely unconstitutional.

However, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that SYL canal water is also the right of Haryana residents and the state will get it. Meanwhile, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann said his State does not have even a single drop of water to share with Haryana, since more than 78% of our 150 blocks are in the extreme dark zone due to the depletion of groundwater table and Punjab cannot afford to share its water with any other State. He added added that at a time when the Anti-Punjab agreement for the canal was made the State was getting 18.56 million-acre-feet of water which has now been reduced to 12.63 as such now Punjab does not have any surplus water.
Whike talking to media persons the Haryana CM Khattar said that politics among leaders of Delhi and Punjab government has started. He said, in case Punjab would have shared SYL canal water with Haryana and permitted construction of river in the state would have been saved from the present situation. In reply to a media question regarding Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal blaming Haryana for floods in Delhi by Yamuna Canal water. Khattar said that Kejriwal is never satisfied and is in the habit of blaming others and always hiding their own lapses. He said, flood like condition in Delhi would never happened in case proper cleaning of river would have been done at three ‘Bairaj’ in Yamuna canal flowing in Delhi at ITO, Wazirabad and Okhla since the canal is filled with garbage and never cleaned by Delhi government as such Kejriwal government itself is responsible for overflowing Yamuna Canal water at present.

 Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that due to illegal mining in rivers in the state the rivers started overflowing during this year playing havoc in as many as 12 districts across the state, causing flood like situation in surrounding areas during this rainy season. He said the ruling government in Haryana has no control over illegal mining in Haryana state. However, denying allegations Khattar said usually water level in Haryana rivers increases due to water arriving from adjoining states Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh during the rainy season. He said, moreover, few districts in Haryana state had excessive rains in past few days recording approximately four times higher as compared to previous years during this rainy season that played havoc in the area recently.

Anurag Dhanda, Senior Vice President and State Vice President Haryana of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) strongly condemned the Haryana state government for taking no prior action to control floods during this rainy season. They demanded white paper from the ruling Haryana state government regarding an amount worth Rs  3000 crore  given to the state government by the Union Government in past nine years towards flood control relief in the state and in case 50% amount would have been spent over it, the state would have not faced a present disaster.