KATHMANDU, July 10: A 10-member high-level delegation from India including Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Minister of Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal and the Central Water Committee secretary will be arriving in Kathmandu for a two-day visit Saturday. [break]
The delegation is set to meet Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal on Saturday.
"Minister Bansal will be meeting the prime minister Saturday. They will visit Koshi barrage area on Sunday," Rajan Bhattarai, the prime minister´s foreign affairs advisor, said.
The delegation is scheduled to visit the embankment site of the Koshi river breached by last year´s floods. The Indian embassy in May-end claimed that all works relating to spurs and embankment were completed by May 30. Following which, the Constituent Assembly team that visited the site claimed that all repair and maintenance work was not completed as claimed by the embassy.
"The delegation will be visiting Koshi embankment site," an official of the Ministry of Irrigation said confirming the visit.
The ministry denied divulging further details of the trip kept highly confidential over the week. The Indian embassy, on the other hand, has said that Minister Bansal and Bal Krishna Khand, Nepal´ Minister for Irrigation, would address a joint press conference on July 12. The embassy denied further comment.
The meeting has come at a time when India has accorded high priority to dialogue with Nepal for flood control measures.
On Wednesday Union Minister of State for water Resources Vincent H. Pala stated in the Lok Sabha that India is in constant dialogue with the government of Nepal to build up reservoir schemes to find a long-term solution to the recurrent floods from rivers flowing from Nepal.
"In order to find a long-term solution to the recurrent floods from rivers coming from Nepal, the government of India is in constant dialogue with the government of Nepal to build reservoir schemes on Mahakali (Sarada), Karnali (Ghagra), Kamala, Bagmati and Koshi rivers," Pala said.
He had also said that since water is a state subject, flood management schemes are planned, funded and executed by the state governments as per their own priority. The role of the central government is technical, catalytic and promotional in nature, he said.
The Indian cabinet in November 2007 had approved Flood Management Program (FMP), allocating an amount of IRs 8,000 crore in principal for the government´s Eleventh Plan.
akanshya@myrepublica.com
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