Union Minister of Water Resources Nitin Gadkari on Thursday announced that water from three rivers flowing into Pak, over which India has full rights under the Indus Water Treaty, will be diverted to Yamuna river, in wake of Pulwama terror attack. However, Secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources Khawaja Shumail reacting to the decision said we’re neither concerned nor objecting.
Will Divert Water From Eastern Rivers To J&K and Punjab: India
“After formation of India and Pakistan, India and Pakistan got the right to use waters in three rivers each. The water from our three rivers is going to Pakistan. Now, we are planning to build a project and divert the water from these three rivers into Yamuna river. Once this happens, Yamuna will have more water,” news agency ANI quotes Nitin Gadkari as saying at a public event in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat on Wednesday.
On Thursday evening, Gadkari took to Twitter to say that all the three projects have been declared as national projects. “Under the leadership of Hon’ble PM Sri @narendramodi ji, our government has decided to stop our share of water which used to flow to Pakistan. We will divert water from Eastern rivers and supply it to our people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab,” the minister for water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation wrote on the microblogging site.
In another tweet, Gadkari said, “The construction of dam has started at Shahpur – Kandi on Ravi river. Moreover, UJH project will store our share of water for use in J&K and the balance water will flow from 2nd Ravi-BEAS Link to provide water to other basin states.”
Western Rivers (Chenab, Indus, Jhelum) Are Our Right: Pak
In wake of Pulwama terror attack, India first withdrew the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status to Pakistan and slapped a 200 per cent duty on all imports.
Speaking to Dawn newspaper on Thursday night, Secretary of Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources Khawaja Shumail said: “We have neither concern nor objection if India diverts water of eastern rivers and supplies it to its people or uses it for other purposes, as the IWT (Indus Waters Treaty) allows it do so.”
Mr Shumail said Pakistan did not see India’s decision as worrisome in context with the Indus Water Treaty.
“But we will definitely express our concerns and raise objections strongly if they use or divert waters of western rivers (Chenab, Indus, Jhelum) on which our right to use prevails,” he added.
As the Indus Water Treaty has already given a right to India in 1960 to use the water of eastern rivers, it is now up to it to do so or not, Pakistan’s Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah told Dawn.
“Whether they diverted and used their unutilised share of eastern rivers’ waters in 1960, we had no problem. They want to do it now, we have no problem. And if they don’t want to use this, we have no issue,” Mr Shah told the newspaper.
The Pulwama terror attack on Feb 14 was claimed by Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed. India has accused Pakistan of not doing enough to control such groups, while Pakistan has denied involvement although, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) themselves acclaimed
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