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| World Bank puts on hold Rs 2250 cr projects for J&K | | Union finance ministry unmoved | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 14: World Bank aided developmental programmes for Jammu and Kashmir amounting to Rs. 2250 crore remain frozen for want of Pakistan's no objection certificate for their execution and India's inability to certify that the projects are not detrimental to Pakistan's interest.
Even an SOS letter from Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to UPA government in New Delhi in May 2009 for centre's immediate intervention has not received any response. According to operational policy 7.60 of World Bank, 'Projects in disputed areas' are to be cleared and financed only under set of agreed terms and conditions to which both India and Pakistan as executive members are signatories.
Kashmir dispute being internationally recognised falls in the above category. For this reason, World Bank recently withheld its allocation until specified pre-conditions were fulfilled. These are that the projects to be funded by the World Bank 'in disputed Jammu and Kashmir' are not detrimental to Pakistan's interest and that Pakistan has 'no objection' in this regard.
Omar Abdullah had specifically approached central government regarding Participatory Watershed Management Programme (PWMP) for which World Bank had committed allocation of Rs. 750 crore. Earlier also, a Rs. 1500 crore project for rural roads identified for some Indian states had got stuck when Jammu and Kashmir was drafted as part of project at a later stage due to similar reasons.
The chief minister after detailed discussion with state officials had urged the central government to take up the issue with executive directors of World Bank and get the allocation released at the earliest. Significantly, Pakistan has maintained intriguing silence over this ticklish issue. It has neither indicated its approval nor disapproval.
World Bank on its part cannot proceed in terms of its operational policies related to project's location in the disputed areas. Sources said that union finance ministry is yet to take up the issue with World Bank for resolution. They added that even after Forest minister Mian Altaf along with four MPs of Jammu and Kashmir met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee recently in New Delhi and pleaded with him to take up the issue with World Bank, finance ministry has not approached the bank formally for settlement.
Interestingly, World Bank had raised the disclaimer issue in 2009 after assessment of the project which was then at the funding stage. Sources affirmed that if the centre pursued the matter vigorously, the World Bank could be convinced to give up the disclaimer condition. They would give up disclaimer once government of India takes up the issue with World Bank and manages to convince them over objections raised by them, an official of the state government said.
Officials disclosed that devised in the year 2001 and later revised in August 2004, operational policy clearly outlines that bank considers nature of the dispute which is thoroughly discussed in Project Appraisal Document (PAD) of every project falling in disputed area.
After discussing nature of dispute, policy affirms that bank would consider the proposal if is satisfied that "either (1) the other claimants to the disputed area (which is Pakistan in J&K and India, in Pak administered Kashmir) have no objection to the project; or the project is not harmful to the interest of other claimants, or (ii) that a conflicting claim has not won international recognition or been actively pursued.
The policy which was spelled out by World Bank when it was asked to comment for having extended disclaimer to Jammu and Kashmir, which it had issued for Arunachal Pradesh earlier in the context of China's stated claim over Arunachal Pradesh. It says "In all cases, project documentation bears disclaimer stating that by supporting the project, Bank does not intend to make any judgment on legal or other status of territories concerned or to prejudice final determination of parties' claims."
Intriguingly, even while issuing clarification after issue of PWMP funding snowballed over the disclaimer issued by it, World Bank (WB) officials desisted from spelling out operational policy in toto and preferred avoiding further controversy over the issue.
The 151.1 million dollar or Rs 740 crore J&K Participatory Watershed Management Project ( PWMP), covering an area of 4,32,919 hectares of forest area in all the three regions of the state- Ladakh, Kashmir Valley and Jammu region includes 11 areas namely Sukhnag (Khan Sahib), Budgam, Jhelum Sheeri, Lidder, Sindh (Kangan) Kahmil ( Ramal Nagri) in the Valley; Kuntewala in Doda, Tawi, Manawar Tawi Buddhal in Jammu region and, Indus in Leh and Suru in Kargil- were to be covered under this project.
This matter was raised by the state government before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when he visited Kashmir on October 28. Earlier, World Bank had funded two schemes of this project- Rs 90 crore from 1990 to 1999 and Rs 198 crore from 1999- 2005 under the Integrated Watershed Development Programme.
Officials in Jammu and Kashmir wondered over this sudden change in the attitude of the World Bank. Officials added that it was more shocking because team of World Bank (WB) headed by its industry policy expert Norman Piccioni had visited the state from May 5 to 12, 2008, and assessed feasibility of project
World Bank will finance 80 percent of the project and the state government 17 per cent. Participatory communities will contribute 3 per cent. If implemented, 1,74,250 households will be covered while 50,675 households will directly benefit from the project. Overall, it is expected to benefit over a million people and generate 4.5 million person-days of wage employment besides providing jobs to 2,000 people regularly for seven years. |
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