The Government is working on a strategy to ensure that not a single drop of water flows from India into Pakistan, Jal Shakti Minister CR Paatil asserted on Friday following a high-level meeting chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah. Paatil said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has issued a slew of directives, and the meeting was held to follow up on them and Shah made several suggestions at the meeting for their effective implementation. Earlier on the day Shah called up all Chief Ministers and asked them to ensure that no Pakistani stays in India beyond the deadline set for leaving the country.
Talking to media, Jal Shakti Minister Patil said “we will ensure that not a single drop of water flows into Pakistan from India”. Government is working on a long-term plan to ensure the effective implementation of its decisions. Shah held the meeting to discuss the future course of action on the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 with Pakistan, which has been kept in abeyance following Tuesday’s Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed. India has already informed Pakistan of its decision to keep the treaty in abeyance with immediate effect, as the neighbouring country has breached its conditions by targeting Jammu and Kashmir with sustained cross-border terrorism. Paatil said India has sent a strong message to Pakistan that it will not tolerate terrorism at all.
India on Thursday announced revoking all visas issued to Pakistani nationals from April 27 and advised Indian nationals residing in Pakistan to return home at the earliest, as tensions between the two countries escalated over the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, mostly tourists, on Tuesday.
The Home Minister in the morning called up the Chief Ministers of all the States and asked them to ensure that no Pakistani stays in India beyond the deadline. The Chief Ministers were also told to identify the Pakistani nationals staying in their respective areas and ensure their deportation, the sources said. The revocation of visas does not apply to the long-term visas already issued to Hindu Pakistani nationals, which “remain valid”. Government has also formally issued a notification to suspend the Indus Water Treaty. The treaty brokered by the World Bank has governed the distribution and use of the Indus river and its tributaries between India and Pakistan since 1960. The Indus river system comprises the main river, the Indus, and its tributaries. The Ravi, Beas, Sutlej, Jhelum and Chenab are its left-bank tributaries, while the Kabul river, a right-bank tributary, does not flow through Indian territory.
The Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are collectively referred to as the eastern rivers, while the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab are known as the western rivers. The water of this river system are crucial to both India and Pakistan.
At the time of Independence, the boundary demarcation between the two newly-formed nations — India and Pakistan — cut through the Indus Basin.
Identification of Pakistanis across the country announced riparian and Pakistan as the lower riparian state. Two key irrigation works — one at Madhopur on the Ravi and another at Ferozepur on the Sutlej — on which Punjab on Pakistan’s side was entirely dependent, ended up within the Indian territory.
This led to a dispute between the two countries over the utilisation of irrigation water from the existing infrastructure. Following negotiations facilitated by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (now part of the World Bank Group), the Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960.
Under the treaty, India was granted exclusive rights to the water of the eastern rivers-- the Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi — amounting to an average annual flow of about 33 million acre-feet (MAF). The water of the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab -- amounting to an average annual flow of around 135 MAF was largely allocated to Pakistan. However, the treaty allowed India to utilise the water of the western rivers for domestic needs, non-consumptive uses, agriculture and hydroelectric power generation. Pakistan has rejected India’s suspension of the treaty and said any measures to stop the flow of water “belonging to Pakistan” under the pact will be seen as an “act of war”.