India on Thursday reiterated its position on the Kishenganga and Ralte hydropower projects in Jammu & Kashmir and suggested some alternative ways to the visiting World Bank representative for resolving its dispute with Pakistan over the Indus Water Treaty.
During the meeting with World Bank official, Ian H Solomon, India said it was even open to resolving its dispute with Pakistan through bilateral channels.
Pakistan has claimed that the designs of the Kishenganga and Ratle projects being built on Jhelum an Chenab rivers violated the Indus Water Treaty and the projects will cut down water flow to the country. Solomon is meeting officials of both India and Pakistan to work out a way to end the current deadlock between the two sides on the methodology to resolve the dispute.
Both India and Pak have suggested different ways to resolve their disagreement. Pakistan has asked World Bank to set up a Court of Arbitration under the Treaty’s provisions to settle the dispute on India’s upstream projects on Kishenganga and Ralte while India has favoured appointment of a neutral expert to settle the matter.
In the absence of unanimity on dispute resolution methodology, the World Bank had earlier decided to go ahead with both these processes simultaneously. However, following India’s strong objection to this, the Bank decided to Rspause’ these process and asked the two countries to look at alternative approaches to resolve their dispute.
Thursday’s meeting in New Delhi was the first step by the World Bank to find the alternative middle path where the two countries can sit and resolve their dispute. It was attended by Solomon, senior adviser to the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim, Ministry of External Affairs and Water Resources officials. India clarified its legal position on the 330 MW Kishenganga and the 850 MW Ratle projects and suggested alternative ways to resolve its dispute with Pakistan while reiterating having neutral experts in case there is no alternative.
Solomon will now travel to Islamabad to hear the views of Pak officials. Pak had taken its objections to the International Court of Arbitration at The Hague which in 2013 allowed India to go ahead with construction of the dam on Kishenganga and divert its water on a condition that India will ensure a minimum environmental flow of at least 9 cubic metre per second in the river as it flows to Pakistan. It also asked India to ensure that the reservoir was never depleted beyond the dead storage level.