Pakistan Muttahida Kissan Mahaz (PMKM) has criticised the government for not taking up water issues with India seriously, which (Indai) is determined to turn Pakistan into desert by constructing dams on rivers Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
PMKM Punjab district presidents, convenors and secretaries held a meeting here on Sunday to discuss the problems of agriculture sector and the Indian water projects on Jhelum, Chenab and Indus rivers in the Indian occupied Kashmir in violation of the Indus Basin Water Treaty 1960 between Pakistan and India.
India almost closed flow of River Chenab for three months last year, which made about 3.5 million agriculture tracts into barren land and destroyed standing crops.
River Chenab provides water to 21 major canals and irrigates about seven million acres agriculture land in Punjab. It may be added that according to Pakistan Indus Water Commissioner, Syed Jamaat Ali Shah, India is building 14 dams on Indus apart one at Kargil besides constructing 48 big and small dams on Chenab and Jhelum rivers. It is utilising 100 percent water of Chenab, 70 percent water of Jhelum and 65 percent of the Indus on which Pakistan has exclusive rights under the Indus Water Treaty.
PMKM expressed grave concern on these projects as they would deprive Pakistan of its water reservoirs and endanger its survival. "Any hindrance in water flow of the three rivers would cost Pakistani agriculture heavily, leading to a loss of trillions of rupees every year," the PMKM added.
The PMKM noted that Baglihar dam in the occupied Kashmir by India has already reduced water flow in river Chenab by two thirds of its historic flows rendering millions of hectares of lands in Punjab non-irrigable and causing a loss of Rs 6 trillion per annum to the national exchequer.
It warned that with the reduction of water flows in Indus and other rivers the Sindhi farmers would also be badly hit. However, it alleged the politicians of Sindh were not raising their voice against the Indian water aggression and dangers to the nation's survival due to acute shortage of drinking and irrigation water in future.
The PMKM condemned the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Water and Power for not taking affective steps against India to stop it from diverting and withholding water of Pakistan rivers that flow from Kashmir into Pakistan. It said as the government was not doing enough, PMKM will protest in front of the embassies and offices of the foreign countries in Islamabad against the Indian water aggression and crimes against humanity.
The PMKM opposed the installation of the rental power stations and demanded that the government should execute the planned hydel power projects that could produce cheap 20,000 MW electricity. The meeting also rejected any raise in the electricity tariff and warned that it would launch a nation-wide protest campaign in co-ordination with the traders and industrialists.
It alleged that the present government was working on the dictates of IMF and World Bank.
The farmers also opposed the proposed leasing of one million acres of land to any country and said "we will oppose the neo-colonialism in the country" They resolved to observe 2010 as the year of agriculture development in Pakistan.