India will stop its share of Indus water to Pakistan, says Nitin Gadkari

A day after threatening to choke Pakistan's water supply, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said the Centre was planning to build projects on three rivers flowing into the belligerent neighbour, to divert water towards Yamuna.

"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," ANI quoted Gadkari as saying.

Under the Indus Waters Treaty, India shares water of the Beas and Sutlej rivers with Pakistan.

Gadkari later took to Twitter to confirm the upcoming projects that would help divert water towards Yamuna.

Under the leadership of Hon'ble PM Sri @narendramodi ji, Our Govt. 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.

- Nitin Gadkari (@nitin_gadkari) February 21, 2019

At a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday, Gadkari had said that the water from three rivers entering Pakistan would be diverted towards river Yamuna, a warning which came in the wake of recent terror attack in Pulwama that has left the nation fuming. He further said that the central government is working on a project to connect the three rivers to further explore the possibilities of transportation in these water channels.

"Three of our rivers have been flowing into Pakistan. So water which we rightfully owned was going into Pakistan. Now we are planning to create a project and divert the waters of these three rivers to the Yamuna. So you can understand that there will be enough water in the Yamuna," Gadkari said while inaugurating several water projects in Uttar Pradesh.

"Construction of dam has started at Shahpur-Kandi on Ravi river. Ujh project will store our share of water for use in Jammu and Kashmir and balance water will flow from second Ravi-Beas link to provide water to other basin states. Above projects are declared as national projects," Gadkari said as per ANI report.

On February 14, a convoy of CRPF jawans was attacked by a suicide bomber who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle. Militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed had claimed responsibility for the attack.

After the Pulwama attack, not only has India tried to stifle Pakistan by courting global support to declare it a terror monger, but the Modi government has also made efforts to cripple its economy by increasing duties on essential products.

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Edited by Chitranjan Kumar