NEW DELHI: The Government of India has decided to go ahead with itscontroversial decision to start a project that aims to store water from adisputed river in Kathua district of India Occupied Kashmir (IOK),according to Times of India.link>
Pakistan has opposed the Indian project and resorting to this kind of‘water terrorism’ as a tactic to harm the country.
In a blatant disregard of the legitimate rights enjoyed by Pakistan underthe Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), the Central Water Commission (CWC) in Indiahas finalised a detailed report on the project titled ‘Ujh’, according tosources.The project, which scheduled to start in Kathua district, will store around0.65 million acre-feet (MAF) of water from Ujh (a tributary of Ravi) toirrigate 30,000 hectares and produce over 200 MW of power.The Modi government decided to take a relook at the implementation of theIndus treaty after the Indian PM decided to do so following the attack onan Indian army camp at Uri in 2016, which was blamed on Pakistan.All of these blames have been denied by the Pakistan government.It took the CWC in India 16 years to complete the process of compiling adetailed project report on the matter after getting a formal nod to do soin 2001, following a political prompt from the current government.
The task force was set up after India decided it will explore all optionsfor utilising ‘maximum waters’ of the Indus system that it waslegally granted under the treaty.