'India will stop share of its water flowing into Pak'

New Delhi: India has decided to stop the flow of its share of water to Pakistan from rivers under the Indus Water Treaty, a move seen as an immediate fallout of deadly terrorist attack that killed 40 paramilitary personnel in south Kashmir.

Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari tweeted to convey the decision of the government to stop India's share of water going to Pakistan.

But the actual implementation of the decision may take up to six years as dams as high as 100 metres will have to be built to stop such flow, officials said insisting its decision was in no way a violation of the Treaty and was only aimed at getting the rightful due to people of the country.

Under the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960, the waters of the western rivers -the Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab - was given to Pakistan and those of the eastern rivers -the Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej - to India.

India's share of water from Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers came to 33 million acres feet (MAF). While about 95 per cent of the water was being used in the country after the construction of three main dams across the rivers, close to 5 per cent water or 1.6 MAF would flow to Pakistan.

To gain access to this water, India is now building more dams which will be completed in six years, officials said.

"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," Gadkari said in a tweet.

He further said, "The construction of a dam has started at Shahpur- Kandi on Ravi river. Moreover, UJH project will store our share of water for use in J&K and the balance water will flow from 2nd Ravi-Beas link to provide water to other basin states."

Following the attack, the government revoked the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status given to Pakistan and also imposed 200 per cent customs duty on all goods imported from the neighbouring country.

"We have started the work of purification of river Yamuna ... After the formation of India and Pakistan, Pakistan got three rivers, and India got three rivers. The rightful water of our three rivers was flowing to Pakistan. Now we will build three projects on them, and divert the water to river Yamuna," Gadkari said Wednesday.