India’s Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said New Delhi will stop Pakistan’s share of water – allocated in the Indus Water Treaty – if Islamabad “does not stop supporting terror groups”, according to a Hindustan Times report.
“We have already started a study into the matter. The water that will be stopped from flowing into Pakistan will be given to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan,” said the minister during a press conference on his campaign tour.
Gadkari further said that India and Pakistan signed the water treaty based on friendship that has long since vanished. “So we are not bound to follow this treaty,” said Gadkari, who also holds the portfolio of shipping and water resources.
In March, soon after tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours flared up and the two sides skirmished in the air, during which at least two Indian Air Force jets were shot down, New Delhi started impeding the flow of three rivers shared by the two countries.
New Delhi had stopped 0.53 million acre-feet of water from the three eastern rivers flowing into Pakistan.
Talks on the lingering water disputes between the longtime rivals were held in August 2018 but ended without any major breakthrough.
Under the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960, Islamabad has unrestricted access to the western rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, while New Delhi enjoys the same authority over the eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej.