SRINAGAR, May 20: Held Kashmir’s chief minister on Friday urged India and Pakistan to cooperate on developing hydroelectric power in the divided Kashmir in a bid to avert further rows over power development in the territory. The two sides are at odds over a 450-megawatt hydroelectric project on the Chenab River in south Kashmir that Pakistan charges violates a decades-old water treaty between the nations.
“This Baglihar project does not amount to any violation of the Indus Water Treaty, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said in a statement. “The way to end this mistrust and apprehension is to have joint ventures in hydroelectric power”, he added.
Mr Sayeed’s suggestion follows a decision by the World Bank to name a neutral expert in response to a request by Pakistan which charges that India has violated the Indus Water Treaty in building the Baglihar dam.
The World Bank brokered the water treaty 44 years ago. Pakistan fears the one-billion-dollar project could deprive its wheat-bowl state of Punjab of vital irrigation water and says it never approved the project’s design as stipulated under the treaty. The row over the Baglihar dam has been an irritant in the ongoing peace process between the two countries.—-AFP
