JAMMU, Nov 8: The chief minister of occupied Kashmir has asked for a plan to tap the water of River Chenab in the parched region of Jammu, and Pakistani officials said the proposal reported on Thursday in a local newspaper here could trigger a fresh round of controversy between the two countries.

The Jammu-based pro-government Early Times said Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was contemplating tapping water at Reasi from the river that was assigned to Pakistan by the Indus Water Treaty of 1960.

The idea is to “cope with the scarcity of drinking water in Jammu city and its peripheral areas” and supply Chenab water “to the city through gravity.”To this end Mr Azad on Thursday “called for a project report for the purpose which he said would be taken up with (New Delhi) for funding.

He expressed concern over the shortage of water in the state’s winter capital and asked the concerned officers to prepare a futuristic project for augmentation of water supply,” the newspaper said.

Mr Azad, the report said, passed these instructions during a high level meeting convened here to review development works in Jammu city. A suggestion to tap the Chenab water at Reasi was put forward in the meeting upon which the Chief Minister told the concerned officers to prepare a project report.“It was suggested that since the supply of water through naturally available gradient from Reasi was feasible, filtration plants could be constructed en-route to provide safe potable water to people in the city,” the newspaper said.

State polls in Jammu and Kashmir are due shortly and Mr Azad’s Congress party is pitted in Jammu against the national chauvinist Bharatiya Janata Party. Some see the search for water as poll-related rhetoric.

The proposal appears to be unrelated to a running dispute on India’s plans to construct the Baglihar Dam over the Chenab River in Jammu region. The dam is being built on two 450-megawatt phases.

Pakistan says, the dam in Chandrakot in southern Doda district violates the 1960 Indus Water Treaty on river water sharing, one of the nuclear rivals’ most enduring agreements.

Islamabad fears the dam could interfere with the flow of water from the Chenab River and deprive it of vital irrigation in Pakistan’s wheat-growing Punjab province. New Delhi says the fears are groundless.

The World Bank-negotiated accord bars India from interfering with the flow of the three rivers feeding Pakistan — Indus, Chenab and Jhelum — but allows it to generate electricity from them.

The first phase of the Baglihar Dam was due to be completed in 2004 but has been delayed by the dispute. “If the report is true, there would be concern in Pakistan,” a Pakistani diplomat said, commenting on the lead story in Early Times.