Gadkari to ‘End’ Water Flow to Pak Post Pulwama – But It Isn’t New

Gadkari’s tweets come a week after the Pulwama terror attack which claimed lives of at least 40 CRPF personnel.

File image of Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India Nitin Gadkari.

(Photo Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)

A day after it was announced that India has decided to "stop" the flow of its share of river water to Pakistan, Union Ministry on Friday, 22 February, said that the water ministry is working on a report that will detail how to block other water resources from flowing into the country.

Amid tensions over the Pulwama terror attack, Gadkari on 21 February had announced the Eastern rivers which comprises of Ravi, Sutlej and Beas will be diverted from Pakistan and supplied instead to the people in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

To achieve this, Gadkari said that the construction of a dam has started at Shahpur- Kandi on Ravi river. He added that another project on Ujh will store the share of water for use in J&K and “the balance water will flow from Ravi-Beas Link to provide water to other basin states.”

However, the project’s implementation was already approved in December 2018.

Projects Already Approved in 2018

Additional director general of media and communications in the ministry, Neeta Prasad later clarified to ANI, that the projects stated by Gadkari are not "new decision" adding he was "simply reiterating" old ones.

As per PTI reports, Shahpur- Kandi project was scheduled to be completed by September 2016. However, following a dispute between the states of J&K and Punjab, the work on the project had been suspended since August, 2014.

The dispute was resolved on 8 September 2018, by the state government of J&K and Punjab. The construction work has now been resumed by the Punjab government, under the central government's monitoring.

Another project announced by Gadkari, the Ujh multipurpose project was approved by the government in July 2017 with the total estimated cost of Rs 5,850 crore, PTI reported citing a water ministry statement. 

Govt Packaging 'Jingoism' to Hide Security 'Failures': Cong

Following Gadkari's annoucement, Congress In a sharp attack said that it is an attempt to "package high octane jingoism to subterfuge national security failures".

Addressing the media on Friday, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said: "You cannot always get away by substituting rhetoric for action. Yesterday you had the highways minister saying that we will stop the flow of all eastern rivers to Pakistan. Somebody needs to ask them that do dams get built in a day."

Pakistan Says It is ‘Not Concerned’

Pakistan is not concerned about India's plan to stop the flow of its share of water to Pakistan from Ravi, Sutlej and Beas rivers under the Indus Waters Treaty, PTI quoted a top official as saying.

Talking to Dawn on Thursday, 21 February, 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 allows it to do so.”

Pakistan's Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah also said that as the IWT has already given a right to India in 1960 to use the water of eastern rivers, it is now up to the country to do so or not.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)