NEW DELHI, Aug 15 (KNS): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India and its farmers have the sole right over the country’s share of Indus river waters, describing the Indus Water Treaty as “unjust and one-sided.”
In his Independence Day address from the Red Fort, Modi said the treaty had caused massive harm to Indian agriculture and that “blood and water cannot flow together.” He accused the agreement of allowing rivers originating in India to irrigate fields in Pakistan while Indian farmers remained deprived.Click Here To Follow Our WhatsApp Channel
“The waters that belong to India will be used by India, for India’s farmers alone. We will not tolerate an arrangement that harms our farmers,” he said, adding that the decision to suspend the treaty follows the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists, in a terror attack in Pahalgam.
Signed in 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, the Indus Water Treaty has governed river water sharing between India and Pakistan for over six decades.(KNS)