Baghpat/New Delhi: Continuing its tough stance in the wake of Pulwama terror attack, India Thursday decided to stop its share of water from the three eastern rivers – the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej – to Pakistan.
“Under the leadership of (Prime Minister Narendra Modi), 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,” Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a tweet.
In another tweet, he said the construction of a dam had started at Shahpur-Kandi on Ravi river. Moreover, the Ujh project will store India’s share of water for use in Jammu and Kashmir and the balance water will flow from the second Ravi-Beas Link to provide water to other basin states.
He said all the above projects were declared as the National projects.
India’s decision comes on top of other actions like withdrawing Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan and slapping a 200 per cent duty on all imports from Pakistan in the wake of the Pulwama suicide bombing that killed 40 CRPF troopers and which was claimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).
India has also sent enough message to Pakistan that it will not be business as usual and that the February 14 terror attack would be avenged.
Meanwhile, speaking at a public meeting in Baghpat, Gadkari said that after partition India got three rivers but their water were flowing to Pakistan.
“… Water will be diverted to Yamuna. It means, there will be more water in Yamuna,” he said.
Under the Indus Waters Treaty, a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, control over the water flowing in three “eastern” rivers of India – the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej with the mean flow of 33 million acre-feet (MAF) – was given to India.
While control over the water flowing in three “western” rivers of India – the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum with the mean flow of 80 MAF – was given to Pakistan.
BOX: Respond decisively, Imran tells Pak army
Islamabad: Pakistan’s top security body Thursday said the country was ‘‘not involved in any way’’ in the Pulwama incident, which was “conceived, planned and executed indigenously” as Prime Minister Imran Khan authorised the military to respond “decisively” to any Indian misadventure.
In a statement issued after a key meeting of the National Security Council chaired by Prime Minister Khan, the country’s top civilian and military leadership said the Pakistan was “determined to demonstrate” that it is capable of protecting its people.
The meeting was convened to discuss the country’s security situation in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack by a suicide bomber of the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad terror group that killed 40 CRPF soldiers last week in Jammu and Kashmir.
Days after the terror strike by JeM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said security forces have been given free hand to avenge the dastardly act.
“This is a new Pakistan and we are determined to demonstrate to our people that the State is capable of protecting them and believes that monopoly of violence stays with State,” said a statement issued after the meeting, according to the Radio Pakistan.
Indo-asian news service
