Click to play videoSrinagar: A Rs 740-crore World Bank funded water management project that will benefit 50 thousand homes and generate hundreds of jobs in Jammu and Kashmir has hit a major road block. The funding agency is insisting upon a disclaimer from the state government that funding for a project will not be seen as recognition of India's territorial claim on Kashmir.
Minister of Forests and Environment, JK Mian Altaf said, “They (World Bank) want a disclaimer that Indian will not use this to endorse claims over Kashmir. This has not happened in the past.”
The disclaimer clause was never an issue on two previous World Bank funded projects in Jammu and Kashmir under the integrated Watershed Development Programme with Rs 90 crore from 1990 to 1999 and Rs 198 crore from 1999 to 2005.
“World bank needs to explain why they have done it this time.. when they have already funded these projects earlier?” asked Mian Altaf
A delegation of state MPs and ministers have already met the Union finance minister to clear the road block.
Earlier, India had seen a similar trouble with the Asian Developmetn Bank, when they were funding a project in Arunachal Pradesh and China had objected.
World Bank's sudden need for a disclaimer is again being seen as a pressure tactic from international agency over the Kashmir issue.
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