India will build three dams in Uttarakhand to divert water flowing to Pakistan: minister

Indian Union Minister for Transport and Water Resources Nitin Gadkari has said that India will dam three rivers in Uttarakhand to restrict water flow to Pakistan and to overcome water shortage in Indian Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, according to reports in the Indian media.

Speaking at an agriculture summit’s closing ceremony in Haryana, the minister said that India had been awarded exclusive rights over three rivers courtesy the Indus Waters Treaty and added that the country had not been able to utilise water from the rivers in accordance with its needs. He went on to term the ‘extra’ water flowing to Pakistan as a ‘breach’ of the treaty.

The minister said that while the three rivers allocated to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty constituted a separate issue, India had first right to water from the Uttarakhand rivers as they were imperative for national development.