J&K CM Abdullah calls on V-P Dhankhar; likely to meet president, finance minister

NEW DELHI: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is on an official visit to Delhi, on Wednesday called on Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar.

A picture of Abdullah and Dhankhar exchanging greetings was posted on the official X handle of the vice-president’s office.

“Shri Omar Abdullah ji, Hon’ble chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, called on Hon’ble Vice-President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar at Vice-President’s Enclave today,” it said in the caption.

Officials said the two leaders discussed various issues related to Jammu and Kashmir during the meeting, which lasted more than 30 minutes.

Abdullah, who arrived in the national capital on Monday evening, is likely to call on President Droupadi Murmu and also meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman soon, the officials said.

On Tuesday, Abdullah attended a conference of power ministers of states and Union territories during which he had said the Indus Water Treaty was restricting Jammu and Kashmir’s ability to harness its huge hydel power potential, primarily due to storage constraints.

India and Pakistan signed the treaty in 1960 after nine years of negotiations, with the World Bank being a signatory to the pact that sets out a mechanism for cooperation and information exchange between the two sides on the use of waters of a number of cross-border rivers in Jammu and Kashmir.

“As a fallout of the treaty barriers, Jammu and Kashmir pays a heavy price in the peak winter months when power generation hits a low, creating hardships for its people,” Abdullah had said at the conference.

He had highlighted the limiting clauses in the treaty that restricted Jammu and Kashmir from realising its full hydel power potential by only permitting run-of-the-river projects and said “hydel power is Jammu and Kashmir’s only viable energy source. The region is compelled to rely on power imports from other states, which adversely impacts its economy”.

He had also said Jammu and Kashmir would require special compensation from the Centre, including viability gap funding and equity assistance, to harness its untapped hydro-energy potential. (PTI)