On Scrapping Indus Treaty, India Keeps All Options Open, Say Sources: 10 Facts

Sources say today's meeting chaired by PM Modi "was a first step" and the government has not ruled out "further steps" on the 1960 treaty that has survived two full-scale wars.

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar were also in the meeting held to assess the agreement after the September 18 attack in which 18 soldiers were killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri.

To start with, the government is looking into ways of making maximum use of three of the rivers that are governed by Pakistan under the treaty - Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

The deal was signed between India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's president General Ayub Khan after World Bank-brokered negotiations that lasted almost a decade.

Control over the three eastern rivers - the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej - was given to India while the three western rivers went to Pakistan, unrestricted.

India can use only 20 per cent of the water of the Indus, Jhelum and Chenab which flows through it first, for irrigation, transport and power generation.

Sources say the government's plan is to exploit an option it hasn't for 30 years - which is to use the western rivers to benefit the farmers of Jammu and Kashmir.

If India were to cut off supply to Pakistan, it could cause a huge crisis in that country as a majority of its areas are dependent on Indus water.

Stopping the flow of the Indus into Pakistan would, however, cause floods in Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab.

The government wants work on dams to be speeded up.