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Talks on Wullar Barrage deadlocked
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 29
The two-day Water Resources Secretaries-level talks between India and Pakistan on Wullar Barrage/Tulbul navigation project in Jammu and Kashmir, which ended here today, proved to be a dialogue of the deaf as the two sides differed from each other on fundamental positions and rejected each other’s key suggestions.

Still, the two countries kept up the semblance of staying engaged on the issue which was reflected by the joint press statement. It said: “The talks were held in a cordial and constructive atmosphere. The two sides exchanged views on the project and reaffirmed their commitment to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. The two sides agreed to continue the discussion at the next round of the Dialogue Process with a view to resolving the issue in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty.”

What transpired during the talks between the two sides — the Indian delegation led by Mr J Hari Narayan and the Pakistani delegation led by Mr Ashfaq Mahmood — is a much different story than the joint press statement reflects.

The Indian side offered to change structural designs of the project — just as it did in case of the Baglihar project. The Pakistani side rejected not just this suggestion but the entire project as well. The Pakistanis said the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul navigation project needed to be scrapped altogether on two counts.

One, because it entails much more water storage than permitted by the Treaty. The Pakistani contention is that the Treaty allowed 0.1 million acre feet of water storage on Jhelum, whereas the project has water storage 32 times greater.

The second Pakistani argument for scrapping of the project is that India started construction on the project without intimating Pakistan about it in the first place, which is violative of the Treaty.

The Indian side dismissed the Pakistani logic for demanding scrapping of the project. New Delhi maintains that the project entails no man-made water storage. India is only setting up navigational locks on the naturally-formed lake to enable ships to ply in Jhelum. India wants to make the Jhelum a navigable river so that small ships can ply between Srinagar and Baramulla.

Another Indian argument that 90 per cent of the project’s benefit would go to Pakistan left the Pakistanis unimpressed. Moreover, the Pakistani side maintained that though India has been maintaining navigation as the main purpose behind the project, it could not substantiate its position on this.

As the talks dithered, Pakistan made a proposal which was promptly rejected by India: that all water talks should be clubbed together. New Delhi saw it as Islamabad’s gameplan to rope in Kishenganga project in J&K in the composite dialogue process so that Kishenganga project could also meet the same fate as Tulbul. Construction work on Tulbul project is stopped since 1988 when India and Pakistan had identified eight bilateral issues, including Tulbul, to be discussed and resolved under the Composite Dialogue Framework.

The seminal differences in Indian and Pakistani positions on Tulbul project are seen in its very title. Pakistan treats it as Wullar Barrage only whereas India describes it as primarily a navigation project.

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