World Bank has no role beyond a facilitator on Indus Waters Treaty issue: President Ajay Banga

The World Bank President clarified that it will not step in to the fix the suspension imposed on the water sharing agreement by India following the Pahalgam terrorist attack.

The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 after nine years of negotiations between India and Pakistan with the help of the World Bank, which is also a signatory.

"We have no role to play beyond a facilitator. There's a lot of speculation in the media about how the World Bank will step in and fix the problem but it's all bunk. The World Bank's role is merely as a facilitator," Ajay Banga was quoted as saying by the Press Information Bureau.

A day after the horrific terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam that led to the loss of 26 lives, mostly tourists, the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was kept in abeyance with immediate effect, until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.

Banga met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in the national capital on Thursday evening. Soon after, there were speculations that the World Bank will step in and interfere in the matter.

Separately, on Thursday evening, India's foreign secretary Vikram Misri highlighted that Pakistan had repeatedly violated Indus Water Treaty by deliberately creating "legal roadblocks" over the years.

He added that it was India's patience that India was "adhering to the treaty for the last 65 years."

Addressing a press briefing, Misri said that India was constantly trying to negotiate to discuss the modification on the treaty.

"For the last 2.5 years, India has been in communication with the Government of Pakistan. We have sent several notices to them requesting negotiations to discuss the modification of the treaty. India has been honouring the treaty for more than six decades, even during the period when Pakistan imposed multiple wars on us. Pakistan has been the one acting in violation of the treaty, deliberately creating legal roadblocks in India, exercising its legitimate rights on the Western rivers... It is India's patience that we were adhering to the treaty for the last 65 years, even after so many provocations," Vikram Misri said.

Misri noted Pakistan's constant "refusal to respond to our request" has been another factor to put the treaty in abeyance.

The Treaty allocates the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan and the Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India. At the same time, the Treaty allows each country certain waters of the rivers allocated to the other. The treaty gives India 20 per cent of the water from the Indus River System and the rest 80 per cent to Pakistan. (ANI)