'Authority Lies With Centre': Punjab Parties Slam Omar Abdullah Over Indus Water Remarks

Chandigarh: The political parties of Punjab have slammed Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah’s remarks in which he has strongly opposed the flow of water from the three western rivers of the Indus system in Jammu and Kashmir to Punjab.

Accusing Abdullah of deliberately politicising the issue, ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Neel Garg said that the authority to decide on river waters lies with the Central government. Hence, Omar Abdullah cannot take a unilateral decision on this matter. He emphasised that Punjab needs water, and therefore, Punjab should also get a share of the Indus River's water.

He further added that during the war with Pakistan, the Indian government had decided to annul the Indus Water Treaty. Now, it is the Indian Government's responsibility to appropriately distribute the remaining water and give Punjab its rightful share.

Neel Garg pointed out that, like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab is also a border state. Whenever war occurs, Punjab becomes the battleground, he said adding that when the country needs food grains, it becomes the granary of the nation. Now that there is water available, Punjab has a legitimate claim over it.

Terming Omar’s statement as absurd, the Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring said that it was unbecoming of the J&K CM to make such remarks when the canals proposed to be constructed, were to save the water from going to Pakistan.

Expressing surprise at Oman’s statement, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) also urged the Centre to undo the "historic injustice’’ done with Punjab by the then Indira Gandhi government while deciding distribution of the water of the Indus water basin.

Former minister and senior SAD leader Daljit Singh Cheema said that what Oman was demanding was another attempt to do injustice with Punjab. He said while filling the food bowl of the country Punjab had lost its ground water which had fallen to alarming levels.