The Hindu : Front Page : Talks on Baglihar dam fail

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 08, 2005

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Talks on Baglihar dam fail

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, JAN. 7. The India-Pakistan talks on the construction of the Baglihar dam on the Chenab river in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir broke down today; and Pakistan has said it would go ahead and seek the appointment of a "neutral expert" to address differences with India as permitted by the Indus Waters Treaty, 1960.

Ashfaq Mahmood, Pakistan's Water Resources Secretary, told presspersons today that this "next step" would be taken as there had been no progress in the three days of talks held with his Indian counterpart, V.K. Duggal, on the Baglihar dispute.

He said the Pakistan's move to go ahead and seek the appointment of a neutral expert would be the first occasion since the Treaty was signed by India, Pakistan and the World Bank 44 years ago. Mr. Mahmood claimed that the proposed Baglihar dam, at 470 feet, was higher than Pakistan's Tarbela dam.

Mr. Mahmood, however, did not answer a question why the Pakistan had not invoked the appointment of a neutral expert as far as the Tulbul navigation project was concerned — an issue which has been under discussion for 16 years between the two countries.

`Ready to continue discussions'

In a related development, an External Affairs Ministry official said India was ready to continue technical discussions with Pakistan on the Baglihar dispute. According to him, the Indian position remained that the design of the project was well within the definitions contained in the Indus Waters Treaty.

According to the official, Pakistan's intention was to ensure that the Government of India could not go ahead with any project that would benefit the people of Jammu & Kashmir. All this was being done to prevent India going ahead with the Baglihar project, he said.

India, the official said, would not stop the construction of the Baglihar project as demanded by Pakistan. In the case of Tulbul, construction was halted some 16 years ago, and since then the matter had been the subject of bilateral discussions, with Pakistan showing no urgency in resolving the issue. India did not want Baglihar to meet the same fate, the official maintained.

Under the Indus Waters Treaty, waters of the Sutlej, Ravi and Beas are for the exclusive use of India, and the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus are for the exclusive use of Pakistan.

At his press briefing, Mr. Mahmood said there could be no consumptive use of waters by India of the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus waters.

Pointing out that there had been two rounds of discussions at the Secretary-level after the Indus Waters Commissioners failed to reconcile their differences, he claimed India had started and continued with the construction of the project despite objections raised by Pakistan.

According to Mr. Mahmood, on two occasions when Pakistan indicated that it would move towards the appointment of a neutral expert, it was India which had suggested bilateral discussions to resolve the Baglihar dispute.

He claimed that when the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, visited New Delhi in November last year, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, suggested there should be a final meeting to deal with the matter. That "final" meeting had now taken place, he claimed.

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