CHANDIGARH: Sukhbir Singh Badal Deputy Chief Minister Saturday vowed to take every 'legal and political' step to protect the share of Punjab in the river waters, according to the internationally recognised Riparian principles.

Answering the queries of media men regarding Haryana pressurising Union Government to complete SYL Canal and J&K's claim on water from Thein Dam at Jalalabad, the Deputy Chief Minister said that Shiromani Akali Dal had launched a sustained struggle, against the evil mechanisations of Congress party, to rob Punjab of its due share in river water and right from Kapoori Morcha his party had been taking every legal as well as political step to fail the nefarious designs of Congress party. Mr. Badal said that according to Riparian principles neither Haryana nor any other state, has any legal right on Punjab's water. Moreover, Punjab has not a single drop to spare for other states, in the view of increasing requirements of its own agricultural sector.

When asked about the proposal of increasing retirement age of State employees from 58 to 60 years, Mr Badal replied that it was still under consideration of State government and no final decision has been taken in this regard.

To a question posed regarding increasing pollution by burning paddy stubbles by the farmers, the Depuuty Chief Minister said that newly introduced machines like ‘Happy Seeder’ would tackle the problem of paddy residue. Moreover, with the construction of 28 Baggass based power plants throughout the state, the farmers would prefer to sell the agricultural residue to these plants, rather than burning them.

Earlier speaking in the cultural program organised by language department to celebrate Punjabi language month,  Badal said that it was matter of great pride for us that SAD-BJP government has taken the revolutionary step to give due status to Punjabi language by making it mandatory every office of the state. He said that Punjab government would provide full assistance to Language department to effectively implement this directive. He said that Punjabi University Patiala was already working on developing search engines like Google in Punjabi language. Moreover all websites of the state government and state boards and Corporations would be bilingual, after development of technology in this regard

On the occasion giving details of the activities organized by Language department to mark ‘Punjabi Mah’ Dr. Upinderjit Kaur, Education and Language Minister Punjab informed that the activities to promote Punjabi language and Culture under this program were initiated from holy city of Sultanpur Lodhi. She said that besides organizing various activities in different cities of the state to aware people about the importance of mother tongue, valuable discussion had been conducted at Bhasha Bhawan Patiala, where prominent language experts articulated their opinion to promote Punjabi Language.

Badal also released the special edition of book Punjabi dunia with title ‘Sri Guru Granth Sahib Vishesh Ank’ published by Language Department. A number of prominent personalities including Mr. Jaswant Singh Kanwal, Prof. Brahmjagdish Singh, Prof. Sadhu Singh Faridkot, Gulzar Singh Jaito, Prof. Surjit Kumar, Dr. Harnek Singh Komal and Dr. Gurcharan Singh were honored during the function for their contribution to the Punjabi language.