The Narendra Modi government has decided to up the ante against the terrorist state of Pakistan as it has now decided not to renew its 1989 agreement of sharing hydrological data of the Indus system of rivers during flood season with Pakistan.
The government has informed them that it would only provide information on “extraordinary discharges and flood flows”, reports the Times of India.
Reportedly, the agreement between the two countries was mere a goodwill gesture of the Indian government, which was renewed every year. However, with Pakistan meddling in India’s internal affairs and with the recently heightened tensions over the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and the bifurcation of the state into two Union Territories, the government of India has changed its position.
“This agreement was not renewed in the current year by us,” PK Saxena, Indian Commissioner for Indus Waters, told TOI on Wednesday.
However, this decision has nothing to do with the Indus Water Treaty signed between India and Pakistan in 1960 for sharing waters of the Indus system. “India as a responsible nation is committed to the provisions of the IWT,” said Saxena.
Referring to the 1989 agreement to share hydrological data during flood season between July 1 to October 10, he said, “This was the arrangement beyond the IWT provisions as a gesture of goodwill from India. This arrangement was being renewed every year since 1989 with modifications as and when required.”
Sharing his views on the IWT, Saxena said, “Under the Treaty provisions, India is required to provide advance information in regard to ‘extraordinary discharges and flood flows’. This is being done whenever the extraordinary flows are reached.”
The move by the Indian government is considered to be the response to Pakistan’s continuous propagation of terror into India and also its attempts to destabilise the normalcy in the Kashmir.
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Union Minister for Jal Shakti (water resources) on Tuesday had said the country’s intent to fully utilise its share of water from Indus river system within the IWT rather than allowing it to flow into Pakistan. Since many years, India has been working on to divert our share of water that flows to Pakistan and utilise it for the benefit of our own farmers, industries and people.
“Work has already begun to stop the waters that flow into Pakistan (under IWT). I am talking about the water which is going to Pakistan, and I am not talking about breaking the Indus treaty,” Shekhawathad had said. He said that the experts were working on the hydrological and techno-feasibility studies.
As per the Indus Water Treaty, the control of the Beas, the Ravi and the Sutlej river vests with India while Pakistan controls the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum. As the Pakistani rivers receive more waters from India, the treaty allows New Delhi to use the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum waters for limited irrigation and unlimited use of power generation, domestic, industrial and non-consumptive use.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has accused India of having unleashed fifth-generation warfare against it and said that New Delhi failed to share the hydrological data on the waters of Sutlej river with Pakistan on time, leading to floods across the Islamic nation.
