PM reviews Indus Water Treaty, says 'blood and water cannot flow together'

Taking stock of the 56-year old Indus Water Treaty with Pakistan here on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said "blood and water cannot flow at the same time".

India would expedite construction on three dams on the Chenab River, named Pakul Dul, Sawalkot and Bursar, the decision came at the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi in the backdrop of the Uri terror attack last week.

According to sources, India will utilise "legal rights in the treaty to the fullest" and the construction on the Tulbul navigation project, the work on which was suspended in 2007, would also be reviewed.

India would use the potential of 18,000 megawatt of power from the western rivers under Indus Water Treaty, while an inter-ministerial taskforce for the Indian rights would be formed for western rivers under the treaty, said sources on the Prime Minister-Water Resources Ministry meet.

NSA Ajit Doval, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Nripendra Mishra, Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, Water Resources Secretary Shashi Sekhar and other senior officials briefed Prime Minister Modi on the Indus Water Treaty.

The treaty was inked in 1960 by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and then Pakistan President Ayub Khan, which allocates 80 percent of water to Pakistan from the six-river Indus Water System, including Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum that flows from India to Pakistan.

The treaty, brokered by the World Bank, is often considered to be one-sided and there has been growing clamour to relook at it. The pact has survived wars and phases of frosty ties between India and Pakistan.