'Kishenganga verdict at the Hague court absolute victory for India'

NEW DELHI: Senior counsels, who represented India in an international court against Pakistan on a dispute over Kishenganga hydro-power project, on Tuesday termed the verdict of the Hague-based International Court of Arbitration as an "absolute" victory for India. The court had recently rejected Islamabad's objections by upholding New Delhi's right to divert water from the Kishenganga river for power generation in Jammu & Kashmir.

"The verdict is an absolute victory for India," senior advocate R K P Shankardass said in response to a question on the sidelines of a function where water resources minister Harish Rawat felicitated those involved in the arbitration case.

The court had also said there were "no further restrictions" on the operation of the 330mw hydro-power project for India.

The court had, at the same time, also decided that India will release a minimum flow of nine cumecs (cubic meters per second) into the Kishenganga/Neelum river below the Kishenganga hydro-electric project (KHEP) at "all times."

While India had agreed to release over four cumecs of water, the court decided that a minimum flow criterion of nine cumecs was consistent with Pakistan's analysis of environmental flows, given the need to balance power generation with environmental and other downstream uses.

Some within the government see as a setback for India the court's final verdict on release of nine cumecs of water and disallowing New Delhi to employ "drawdown flushing" at the reservoir of the Kishenganga project, which would entail depletion of the reservoir below dead storage level.

Besides international counsels, Shankardass, jurist Fali S Nariman and advocate S C Sharma represented India in the court.