Center not showing intent to return two power projects to JK

The rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at New Delhi has not budged on returning two power projects to the state despite the demand of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s Peoples Democratic Party, but it has promised the State of pumping in huge funds for over eight power projects.
After PDP assumed power in the state, it ensured that the issue of the return of the two major power projects, the 390 MW Dulhasti and 290 MW Uri-II to the State was in the Agenda of Alliance, the Common Minimum Programme of PDP and its alliance partner, the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Almost three years into power now, Mehbooba Mufti-led government has failed to secure the two power projects back from GoI.
Earlier, Minister for Finance, Haseeb Ahmad Drabu had said that in next six months, eight to ten power projects in the State would start getting massive funding. “Presently, our focus is on that,” he said.
Drabu said the return of Dul Hasti and Uri II predates Agenda of Alliance and it is not a political dispute between PDP and BJP but only an administrative and legal matter.
“This is the most emotive issue and I have said I will resign if this does not happen in six years of our government,” he said. “The timing is an issue but in my sense it will happen but when, I don’t know.”
Opposition National Conference (NC) Working President and former chief minister, Omar Abdullah had criticized the government saying that PDP was misleading people about the return of power projects.
“They misled people saying they would ensure the return of power projects to the State but failed,” he said.
Questioning PDP’s intent, Omar quoted the Union Power Minister as saying clearly that GoI did not wish to return any power project to the State.
Ever since the successive regimes in Jammu and Kashmir raised the demand for return of NHPC-owned power projects, Union Power Ministry always cited constraints on the issue while rejecting the State’s demand.
While 450-MW Baglihar-I is set to become debt-free by 2018 with Power Development Corporation, which owns the project, targeting to clear the debt of over 1200 crores in the period, the Corporation is however yet to start the process of repaying the debt on 450-MW Baglihar-II.
An RTI query filed by Programme Coordinator, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Venkatesh Nayak, had earlier revealed that the power generated from Kashmir’s water resources during the past 14 years had cost the State a whopping Rs 19,431.92 crore (over Rs 194 billion) between 2001 and 2015.
This meant bartering Kashmir’s water resources incurs a yearly loss of Rs 1388 crore.
No wonder, a former minister Taj Mohuddin had referred to NHPC as the notorious “East India Company”, which had been “sucking all electricity” generated on Kashmir’s water resources.
Kashmir is also affected by the Indus Water Treaty, a water-sharing treaty between New Delhi and Islamabad, signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960 by the then Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Pakistan President, Muhammad Ayub Khan.
The World Bank, the then International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), is a signatory to the treaty as a third party.
Owing to the Indus Water Treaty, which is seen as discriminatory toward the State, there is bar on the design development of hydel projects.
‘Pak raising Kashmir at UN is like Miyan ki daud masjid tak’
United Nations
Taking a jibe at Pakistan, a top Indian diplomat has said Islamabad’s decision to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN, which has not been discussed at the world body for decades, is like ‘Miyan ki daud masjid tak’.
India on the other hand is focused on progressive, forward looking agenda during the UN General Assembly session beginning tomorrow, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin told reporters here yesterday. “I have outlined in our approach, that is progressive forward looking. We are visionary in our goals. If on the other hand there are other countries, who as you say, focus on yesterday’s issues then they are yesterday’s people,” Akbaruddin said in response to a question on reports that Pakistan plans to raise the Kashmir issue at the UN.
Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly this week. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would deliver her address on September 23. “If they (Pakistan) focus on an issue which has not been on the discussion table in the UN now for decades, not for years, for decades…, if this is what they want to focus on, so be it. To be his own…Miyan ki daud masjid tak,” Akbaruddin said, referring to a popular Urdu proverb meaning some people think within a limited focus and are unable to think beyond that. A day earlier, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry had said that Abbasi would be raising the Kashmir issue at the UN.