The Minister of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari has said that India would fully utilise its share of unused water from rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej that has been flowing into Pakistan.

Background :

• The comment was made by the Minister in the backdrop of the Pulwama Terror attack which took the life of 40 CRPF soldiers.
• The step towards utilising the share of India under the Indus water treaty is in the line of the steps taken by the government to corner and pressurise Pakistan to act against the perpetrators of terrorism operating from Pakistan.
• Earlier India had taken steps like withdrawal of MNF status to Pakistan and had increased the customs duties on imports from Pakistan.

Utilisation of Full Share :

• To utilise its full share of water, India would divert the water from the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas and Sutlej) to the border states of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.
• India has initiated the construction of a dam on the Ravi river, the Shahpur-Kandi project in Punjab.
• The Ujh project Multipurpose Project in Kathua district would store water for use in Jammu and Kashmir. River Ujh is the main tributary of river Ravi. The balance water would flow through 2nd Ravi-BEAS Link to provide water to other basin states.
• The government would also fast-track these dam constructions to block the unutilised water through three projects at Shahpur-Kandi and a second Sutlej-Beas link in Punjab and the Ujh dam in Jammu and Kashmir.