Consultations begin on India's role in Afghan reconstruction

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV. 24. India has set in motion the process of consultation on how it can contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan after the end of the current military campaign against the Taliban. The Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Mr. K. C. Pant, today presided over a high-level meeting to consider the issues connected with the reconstruction activity.

The meeting, attended by Mr. S. K. Lambah, Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Mr. N. K. Singh, Member, Planning Commission, Mr. Sanjay Pradhan, Representative of the World Bank, and some representatives of the Construction Industry Development Council, was described as an exercise of a preparatory nature. The idea was to make a ``preliminary assessment which would be dovetailed with the ground realities at an appropriate stage later''.

Though India is looking for a role in power, agriculture and construction areas, a more concrete identification of specific fields would be possible only after the meeting of the donor members scheduled to begin in Islamabad from November 27. The meeting would discuss plan for reconstruction as part of the consultation process which started with a meeting of the donor countries and organisations earlier in Washington on November 20.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Pant observed that reconstruction work in Afghanistan would begin only after the establishment of a broadbased, acceptable Government for which efforts were being made these days.

The Construction Industry Development Council, which has prepared a paper on cost and type of construction activity that would take place in the war-torn country, will be sending a delegation to Afghanistan for an on-the-spot study. Significantly, some members of council have been sounded out for joint ventures for undertaking construction jobs in Afghanistan by some construction companies of Iran and Turkey. A list of Indian experts in high- tech fields too would be prepared and submitted to the World Bank and the ADB.

Official sources said India would take into account the papers prepared by the World Bank on the reconstruction activities in similar situations in other regions and the role that could be played in helping the Afghanistan by the six nations sharing borders with it.

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