India’s Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday (today) said that they would stop India’s share of water flowing into Pakistan, if the neighbouring country did not stop supporting terror groups, reported Indian media.
“We have already started a study into the matter. The water that will be stopped from flowing into Pakistan will be given to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan,” he said at a press conference in Amritsar.
Gadkari said the basis of the water treaty between the two countries was peaceful relations and friendship that had completely vanished. “So we are not bound to follow this treaty,” he added.
In March, soon after tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours flared up and the two sides skirmished in the air, during which at least two Indian Air Force jets were shot down, New Delhi started impeding the flow of three rivers shared by the two countries.
New Delhi had stopped 0.53 million acre-feet of water from the three eastern rivers flowing into Pakistan.
Talks on the lingering water disputes between the longtime rivals were held in August 2018 but ended without any major breakthrough.
Under the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960, Islamabad has unrestricted access to the western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, while New Delhi enjoys the same authority over the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.
“We have already started a study into the matter. The water that will be stopped from flowing into Pakistan will be given to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan,” he said at a press conference in Amritsar.
Gadkari said the basis of the water treaty between the two countries was peaceful relations and friendship that had completely vanished. “So we are not bound to follow this treaty,” he added.
In March, soon after tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours flared up and the two sides skirmished in the air, during which at least two Indian Air Force jets were shot down, New Delhi started impeding the flow of three rivers shared by the two countries.
New Delhi had stopped 0.53 million acre-feet of water from the three eastern rivers flowing into Pakistan.
Talks on the lingering water disputes between the longtime rivals were held in August 2018 but ended without any major breakthrough.
Under the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960, Islamabad has unrestricted access to the western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, while New Delhi enjoys the same authority over the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.