ISLAMABAD - India has agreed to allow Pakistani experts to visit controversial hydel projects on Chenab River and a delegation is likely to visit India by the end of January.
“A three-member team would go to India and carry out inspection of projects from January 27 to February 1, 2019,” said a press statement issued by the Ministry of Water Resources.
Pakistan Commissioner for Indus Waters Syed Mehr Ali Shah, who is Joint Secretary in the Water Resource Ministry, would be heading the delegation. Earlier in day, Federal Minister for Water Resources, Faisal Vawda, also tweeted about the development and said, “Pakistan and India have been into Indus Water Treaty dispute for ages.
Due to our continued efforts there is a major breakthrough that India has finally agreed to our request for inspection of Indian Projects on Chenab basin.” He further said, “We have a very major issue of Indus Water Treaty with India. We are making a program for addressing this issue in a very aggressive way and are going forward. And we hope to resolve the issues soon.
We welcome this gesture from India and we expect the same spirit for resolution of other outstanding issues.” Pakistan blames that the India had violated the Indus Water Treaty 1960 while executing its hydro projects in Indian Held Kashmir and has also approached the World Bank on the issue.
It is worth mentioning here that the negotiations between India and Pakistan were stuck since 2014, and it was restored in August last year. In a major breakthrough during the two-day talks held in Lahore, in August 2018, India had agreed to allow Pakistani experts to visit the controversial projects sites located on Chenab River in India Held Kashmir.
However, in October 2018, Joint Secretary Syed Meher Ali Shah, who has additional charge of Commissioner for Waters, told media that the Indian government was not allowing the Pakistani delegation to visit the sites of controversial New Delhi’s Kishanganga and Ratle power projects. Mehr said that the inspection was planned from October 7 to 12, 2018, and India had first agree on it, but later refused.
In December last, Secretary Water Resources Shamail Ahmad Khawaja had said that Pakistan had approached the World Bank as a third party to address the Pakistan’s concerns on Kishanganga and Ratle projects.