Tags:
Journalism of Courage
The Gujarat government has demanded a share of Sutlej, Ravi and Beas waters for drought-prone Kutch district.
In a recent letter to the Union Water Resources Ministry, Chief Minister Narendra Modi has argued that if Delhi, which is in the Ganges basin, could obtain 0.2 Million Acre Feet (MAF) of water from the Indus basin rivers, Kutch certainly deserved a share.
‘‘The Kutch region falls in Indus basin and the fact is based on a map sent to you from the book Indus Water Treaty — 1960. Even during allocation of Indus waters by the Tribunal in 1987 between Punjab and Haryana, the same map was considered to decide the Indus basin states.
“Even a map prepared in 1999 by the National Commission for Integrated Water Resources showing the basin and sub-basin boundaries of Indus river shows Kutch in the Indus basin,’’ Modi argued in his letter.
The state is also making out a case for Kutch deserving a share by highlighting its proclivity to natural disasters such as droughts, cyclones, or earthquakes. Besides, allocating more water to Kutch would improve habitation in the border district, which would be good for security.
The state government has even set up a cell to make to see that the Centre concedes this demand, State Minister for Water Resources Babubhai Bokhiria said. ‘‘The state has been making representations to the Centre for the last six months, demanding allocation of water from those rivers for drought-prone Kutch, but hasn’t received any response. Hence we have set up this cell,’’ Bokhiria said.
Heading the special cell is Chief Engineer and Director of the government’s Water and Land Management Institute K.G. Rathod. His task is to study agreements on sharing of river waters and carry out a hydrogeological survey of the Kutch region to strengthen Gujarat’s claim.
Water Resources Secretary M.S. Patel says that the state ‘‘will not hesitate to approach courts, if the Centre ignores Gujarat.’’ Which means the Ravi-Beas waters, already the subject of a prolonged dispute between Punjab, Haryana, Himachal and Rajasthan, will get further muddied.
Patel said the state government wants a review of the 1981 agreement on apportioning of water from the eastern Indus rivers. Gujarat was left out, he said, even while Rajasthan got 8.5 MAF water from the Indus basin rivers, almost equal to Gujarat’s share of Narmada waters.
Under the Indus treaty, waters of the three eastern rivers in the Indus basin, namely Ravi, Beas and Sutlej, are exclusively used by India, while Pakistan uses water from the western rivers — the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
