J&K can not violate IWT. It is not a party to the treaty. Now Pakistan can go to Hague and say that J&K , which is not a pakistani territory, is constructing Wullar barrage in violation of the treaty. Having special status J&K need not be forced by India ( although we have discussed this issue earlier) to stop construction.
In a first such admission, the J&K government has said it has started work on Wullar Barrage, a project that has been a bone of bitter contention between India and Pakistan. Though work on the project, which was attacked by militants in August earlier this year, has been going on for a long time, the government had then termed it as Jhelum Prevention Flood Control Scheme.
“Minister for Irrigation and Flood Control Taj Mohi-ud-Din informed the House that work on the construction of Wullar Barrage Project is in full swing,” a government statement said on Wednesday 11 October.
However, following the militant attack on the project in August, the state government had denied that the construction had anything to do with the barrage. “This is not Wullar Barrage. It is only an embankment under Jhelum Prevention Flood Control Scheme,” J&K’s minister for irrigation and flood control Taj Mohiudin had said. “We are not violating the Indus Water Treaty. And even under this treaty we have the right to store water. The condition is that we have to release it back into the river. This is what we are doing,” added the minister.
Now the government, for the first time, has described the project as ‘Wullar Barrage’. On 27 August, militants had stopped work on the scheme near Wullar Lake, India’s largest fresh water lake. They had hurled a grenade at the construction site and warned labourers against continuing their work.
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Pakistan took the case to Indus Waters Commission in 1986 but it didn’t resolve the issue. But before Pakistan could move the International Court of Arbitration, India stopped work on the barrage.
There have been 12 rounds of dialogue between the two countries to break the impasse since, but to no avail.
Work on the Wullar conservation started last year. The Union Ministry for Environment and Forests has already sanctioned Rs 386 crore for the project to restore the lake’s lost glory.
On a side note , Wullar barrage is an important component of KHEP. Hence start of construction indicates the confidence of Indian Govt about arbitration order which would be passed soon by Hague.