Centre working to stop water flowing into Pak; Kashmir will get it: Gadkari

‘India wants peace, not land from Pakistan and China’ 

New Delhi: Stating that water of India’s share from three of six rivers in “Akhand Bharat” is flowing into Pakistan, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said the Central government is “trying to stop” this outflow.

He said Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh “will get this water”.

Addressing virtual ‘Jan Samvad’ rally of Gujarat BJP from Nagpur in Maharashtra, he also said India believed in peace and non-violence and do not want to be strong by becoming an expansionist.

“There were six rivers in Akhand Bharat (passing through both India and Pakistan. As per division, waters of three rivers was reserved for Pakistan, while water of other three rivers was to be used by India. Water of our share was also flowing into Pakistan,” Gadkari said as per news agency PTI.

He said states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh were not coming together on this issue earlier.

“For the first time since 1970, I asked our (former J&K governor Satya Pal Malik and Punjab Congress CM (Amarinder Singh) to sign a treaty. We are working to stop the water from flowing into Pakistan. Now Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal will get this water. Our government shows the courage to take this decision, otherwise nothing has happened since 1970,” he said.

He said, “Seven out of nine projects (related to division of water of rivers) where consensus had eluded states earlier have been cleared after CMs of these states were brought together to resolve the matter”.

Gadkari also added that India does not want to grab the land belonging to its neighbours Pakistan and China and wishes to only maintain peace in the region, PTI reported. His remarks came amid border tensions between India and China.

“We should not make India strong by becoming expansionist, we should make India strong for establishing peace,” Gadkari said. “We never tried to grab land of Bhutan. Our country made Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the Prime Minister of Bangladesh after winning the war [with Pakistan in 1971], and our soldiers returned thereafter.”

“We took not a single inch of land,” the union minister added. “We do not want land either of Pakistan or China. All we want is peace, amity, love, and wanted to work together.”