India accepts Teesta 'interim deal' plan | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com
India accepts Teesta 'interim deal' plan
Sat, Mar 20th, 2010 1:33 am BdST
Dhaka, Mar 19 (bdnews24.com)India has accepted Bangladesh's proposal for an "interim deal" on the sharing of waters of the Teesta river during the crucial dry season, at the end of two-day ministerial level talks of the Joint River Commission.
The two sides in a joint statement Friday announced an exchange of drafts after working late late into the night to narrow down differences.
India handed over a "statement of principles" for sharing of Teesta waters during the dry season. Bangladesh submitted a draft of an "interim agreement" for the same purpose.
Water minister Ramesh Chandra Sen and his Indian counterpart Pawan Kumar Bansal asked their water resources secretaries to examine the drafts "for an expeditious conclusion of an interim agreement on the Teesta".
The joint statement also referred to bank protection of common rivers. In addition to the existing 66 acknowledged bank protection points, the meeting identified 12 new Indian sites and 22 new Bangladesh ones. The two sides also agreed to share flood data.
The two sides also agreed that India would begin dredging of the Ichamati river in Bangladesh, which has been causing flood in the India's West Bengal due to emergence of a 20- kilometre shoal.
Bangladesh will also allow India to draw 1.82 cusecs of water from the Feni river for drinking water.
The meeting on Friday, however, continued to focus mainly on the Teesta, a common river originating from India which is crucial for the irrigation of Bangladesh's major rice producing region of Rangpur.
The area faces severe water shortage every year during the dry season. The Bangladesh government has been pushing India to agree an 'ad hoc' deal on water sharing that would bring immediate improvements to the irrigation of 750,000 hectares of land in Rangpur.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni said in January that Bangladesh wanted to sign an "ad hoc" deal with India on Teesta water sharing immediately after the JRC ministerial meeting in March. She stressed at the time the Bangladesh government did not want to wait for results of joint hydrological observations on the river.
Progress on an interim deal initially looked doubtful on Friday, however, as India continued pressing for a hydrological survey before striking any kind of deal, interim or permanent and talks continued late into Friday night in a last ditch effort to narrow gaps.
On the eve of the talks, moreover, India had announced it would factor in the opinion of the state of West Bengal while negotiating any deal on the Teesta. Subhash Naskar, irrigation and waterways minister of the state government of West Bengal, and representatives of Indian states of Sikkim and Tripura were present during the talks.
Earlier Friday, water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen met up with Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, in what may have been a bid to seek a political push to the negotiations that had also involved several rounds of discussions between water secretaries and other officials.
Dhaka and Delhi have been discussing the Teesta sharing issue since 1972.
The first JRC ministerial meeting in five years was held with high hopes for a deal against the backdrop of the "successful summit" between prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in January.
Officials said both countries were hopeful of making significant progress in resolving the issues related to sharing of Teesta water.
Although the issue was expected to be settled before the January summit, Dhaka and New Delhi failed to do so because of disagreement between the two countries' respective positions.
However, the India-Bangladesh Joint Statement issued during Hasina's visit to New Delhi did stress on early conclusions of the issues related to sharing of Teesta.
According to the JRC's charter, the two countries should sit every year to talk water-related issues and settle all disputes on the 54 common rivers that enter Bangladesh from India.
