Gujarat stakes claim on a share in Indus Basin Rivers

New Delhi, Sep 10 (UNI) Even as a dispute over sharing of Ravi Beas waters from the Eastern Rivers of Indus System has not settled between Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan in the past four decades, Gujarat has staked claim on its share of water from six rivers of the Indus Basin, excluding the Indus River exlusively allocated to Pakistan.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha on the allocation of Indus Waters today, Minister of State for Water Resources Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav said the Centre had received a letter from the Gujarat government in October 2002 and again in April and May in 2003 requesting for convening a meeting with the present beneficiary states including Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir for the allocation of waters to the state.

''Kutch region is part of the Indus basin based on historical documents,'' the letters had said.

Mr Yadav said, ''After examining the matter, the Water Resources Ministry, told Gujarat that developments and difficulties in the present allocation of waters among the states cannot not be reopened.'' The Minister, however, added that Gujarat, was free to take up the matter with the present beneficiary states.

Gujarat had observed, among other things, that by ratifying the Indus Waters Treaty, ''it is possible to divert surplus water flowing into the Arabian Sea downstream to Kotri barrage in Pakistan to Kutch.

UNI