The question, however, is how much genuine are the objections raised by Pakistan to the design of the run of river power project being built over Chenab river in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir? Kiru hydroelectric power plant , a prestigious mega 624 MW project is within all the realms of compliance of provisions of the Indus Water Treaty signed in 1960 between the two countries and as Pakistan is already fairly informed about the same in June this year, still the same are not probably acceptable to Pakistan ,perhaps, more on political grounds and less on technical grounds related to the Treaty . It may be noted that the Indus Water Treaty which is being fairly considered as one of the most successful water sharing arrangements in the world , however, while on the one hand there have been problems arising and disagreements and differences surfacing out of the Treaty , yet because of flexibility shown and utmost co-operation extended by the Indian side , the Treaty has remained in force . On the other hand , all these 61 years the Treaty has never been seriously reviewed which normally intermittently it should have been at least to see how Indian interests were got more secured than what are their levels of being favourable to us, as on date.
Six rivers were equally shared between the two countries under the auspices of the World Bank , India getting Beas, Ravi and Sutlej while Pakistan got control over Indus, Chenab and Jehlum. Even though it took nine years to reach an agreement , yet from all counts the Treaty is all beneficial to Pakistan and a huge protection and shield against drought , thirst and its parched land, but at the same time , it empowers Pakistan to raise objections , on cogent grounds, over India in anyway using the western river waters . While under the Treaty, Pakistan has unrestricted use of Western Rivers, India is permitted to construct hydroelectric power projects on these rivers subject to certain “constraints” related to design and operations. It is under these “constraints” Pakistan has been, as a routine, raising trivial natured objections on almost all of our mega power projects related to these rivers hence the design of Kiru project too has been objected to in addition to others like PakulDul,Lower Kalnai and almost all falling in Leh and Kargil districts of Ladakh from time to time.
The IndianIndus Commissioner while confirming about the objections raised by Pakistan , made it clear at the same time that the said design was fully compliant with the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty . This has been buttressed and certified too by the Central Water Commission . That prima facie should remove apprehensions of any sort from the minds of the Pakistani side as the Water Commission is an apex organisation of the country in the field of water resources. We have to reiterate our firm stand about protecting of our rights and the clarification given by India to the objectionsraised by Pakistan must settle the issue which , however, can further be carried to logical ends at the next meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission which is slated to take place anytime this year in Pakistan. That doubts and apprehensions oneither side can be addressed and resolved only through mutual discussions across the table – having been the adhered principle and policy of India and being time tested, hopefully would serve the mode to settle the Kiru issue as well. However, the “objections” raised by Pakistan should in no way cause any delay or any type of deferment in any manner in respect of the work on the mega project which is implemented by Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited which is a joint venture of NHPC and JKSPDC.
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