Rejecting recent allegations by Pakistan of non-adherence to the Indus Water Treaty, India on Tuesday said it was yet another move to raise an 'anti-India' bogey to create 'popular resonance' to cover-up their internal domestic water woes and asked Islamabad to do better water management.
Pakistan is trying to deflect its own domestic water problem by raising the 'India bogey,' sources said adding that the attempt from that country is always to 'stall' or 'delay' any project undertaken by the Indian side.
There are 33 hydroelectric projects by India including Baglihar and Kishanganaga, which are run-of-river projects permissible under the treaty, the sources said.
The information about all these projects, based on their various stages, have been provided to Pakistan, they said.
"India has all along adhered to the provisions of the treaty. There has never been the slightest of tinkering from our side," sources said, adding that most of the issues raised by Pakistan have been those of technical nature and should be addressed by the mechanism of the Permanent Indus Commission.
The allegations by the adviser to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Education, Sardar Aseff Ali, that India 'steals' water has whipped public hysteria.
Even terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Jamaat-ud-Dawa have been trying to hype the issue by blaming India for growing scarcity of water in Pakistan and their leaders Hafiz Saeed and his deputy Abdur Rahman Makki were making public statements like 'Muslims dying of thirst would drink the blood of India.'
"We would ask them (the Pakistan government) to get their act together and do a better management of water. 38 million acre feet (MAF) water constitutes what is known as average escapage to sea," the sources said.
