Indian has been withdrawing water from river Tessta unilaterally and causing untold sufferings for millions of Bangladeshis. Now india refused to hold river commission meeting to have water sharing and essentially flexing its muscle against Bangladesh.
Awami stooges made sure they give up everything according to their indian master demand. Transit, roads, rails and what not. When it comes to livelyhood of millions of Bangladeshis awami stooges are increasing proving to work for indian interest than people of Bangladesh.
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Teesta deal fades
Sun, Dec 6th, 2009 10:07 pm BdST
Kamran Reza Chowdhury
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent
Dhaka, Dec 06 (bdnews24.com)Signing of a Teesta water sharing deal during Sheikh Hasina's Delhi visit now depends solely upon the premiers of Bangladesh and India, foreign ministry officials say.
They say India has rejected Bangladesh's request to hold a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission, which would fix the volume of water for the two countries, before Hasina's visit from Dec 19.
There was no sign Sunday that Bangladesh and Indian water experts during three-day JRC technical committee talks had reached a consensus on fixing the point on the Teesta to collect hydrological dataa precondition for inking the deal.
According to a consensus between the two countries, reached in September, both countries would gather the data, by forming a joint committee of experts, to place at the JRC ministerial meeting, the next step in the process for a deal.
Based on the data, the JRC ministerial meeting would then determine the share of water for the two countries and draft the deal.
Much still needs to be done before the Teesta deal is framed, foreign secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes told bdnews24.com Sunday afternoon at his office.
"We are trying to get a date for the JRC meeting. It is not decided whether it will be on (Dec) 24 or before," he said.
But "anything could happen" if the two top leaders desired, said Quayes.
"India has told us that holding a JRC meeting before the prime minister's visit is not possible," a spokesperson of the foreign ministry told bdnews24.com Sunday.
"Now, there is a slim chance of signing the Teesta deal during the prime minister's visit," he said.
"Everything now depends on the highest political level of the two countries."
The spokesperson said the joint-statement after the meeting of the two prime ministers may set some future timeline for signing a deal on the Teesta.
"I have no knowledge whether any water-related agenda is included during the prime minister's visit," Sheikh Wahed Uz Zaman, water resources secretary, told reporters Sunday after meeting visiting Indian water experts.
The visiting Indian technical team, headed by JRC member SP Kakran, has been holding talks with Bangladesh's JRC technical delegation, led by Mir Sajjad Hossain, since Friday.
Bangladesh has been demanding a deal on Teesta water sharing for decades.
India in 1987 commissioned a barrage in Gazoldoba in the upstream to divert water mainly for irrigation.
Bangladesh in 1990 commissioned the Teesta barrage in the downstream for irrigation in the agro-based but poor Rangpur region.
Now, the first phase of the Teesta barrage project provides water to over 750,000 hectares of land.
Bangladesh cannot implement the second phase of the project due to paucity of water in the Teesta during the dry season.
Bangladesh and India during foreign minister Dipu Moni's Delhi visit in September this year agreed that the two countries would form a joint technical team to collected data on the Teesta's water availability in Bangladesh's upstream, India. The technical team is yet to be formed.
The two countries in September also recognised the need to expedite an agreement on the Teesta, a lifeline of the farmers in the greater Rangpur region in Bangladesh's north.
Teesta deal fades | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com