MUZAFFARABAD, July 7: A federal government committee has asked the Azad Jammu and Kashmir government to conduct a detailed assessment of its irrigation water requirements to prepare a solid case for presentation to authorities, Dawn learnt here on Wednesday.

The AJK government had forwarded its demand for irrigation water (195,870 acres of feet or 784 cusecs) to federal ministries of Kashmir Affairs and Water and Power.

The Ministry of Water and Power had asked the Indus River System Authority (Irsa) for provision of the required water for irrigation but the latter declined the request through a letter dated May 7, 2004, creating anger in Azad Kashmir.

Upon this, the Ministry of Water and Power again asked the body for allocation of irrigation water to the AJK and constituted a committee comprising a Wapda Member, AJK chief secretary, Irsa chairman, chief engineering adviser/chairman federal flood commission, joint secretary of Kana division and project director of Mangla Dam upraising project to determine the correct quantum of water required for the AJK.

On Wednesday, a meeting was held under the chairmanship of additional secretary for ministry of water and power which was attended among others by a representative of Irsa, a representative of Wapda (Mangla upraising project), and AJK's commissioner on Mangla Dam affairs.

The meeting discussed AJK's irrigation water requirements and a source said that it was decided in principle that these requirements would be met by the Government of Pakistan. However, the source said that the committee had called for a detailed need assessment with the help of ground verification and mapping so as to facilitate the decision makers.

"Today's meeting was a sort of a preparatory meeting. It is a start of a process to allocate irrigation water to Azad Kashmir," he said, adding that the next meeting would be held after a month.

The source said that the AJK government had also forwarded the drinking water requirements (202.55 cusecs per day) to the ministry of water and power with a request that Wapda be asked to provide the required water from Mangla.

However, he said, a response on that was still awaited despite the fact that there was a severe water shortage in that area. In the light of clause 6.2 of the Mangla Dam upraising agreement, Wapda has to provide the drinking water from Mangla reservoir and the matter regarding the drinking water has nothing to do with Irsa, the source said.