Teesta river water deal fades

[eastwatch]

Teesta deal fades | Bangladesh | bdnews24.com

Teesta deal fades
Sun, Dec 6th, 2009 10:07 pm BdST
Kamran Reza Chowdhury
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent

Dhaka, Dec 06 (bdnews24.com)祐igning of a Teesta water sharing agreement during Sheikh Hasina's Delhi visit now depends solely on 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 data預 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 agreement.

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 ministerial 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.

"There is a slim chance of signing the Teesta deal during the prime minister's visit," he said.

"It now depends on what occurs at the highest political level."

The spokesperson said the talks between the two prime ministers may set some future time line 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 the visiting Indian water experts.

The visiting Indian technical team, headed by JRC member SP Kakran, has been holding talks with Bangladesh's JRC technical side, led by Mir Sajjad Hossain, since Friday.

Bangladesh has been seeking a deal on Teesta water sharing for decades.

India in 1987 established a barrage in Gazoldoba in the upstream to divert water mainly for irrigation.

In 1990, Bangladesh 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. But 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.

 

[eastwatch]

South Asian Media Net


TEESTA WATER SHARING DEAL UNLIKELY
Friday, December 25,2009

DHAKA: The signing of a full-fledged agreement on the sharing of Teesta River’s water between Bangladesh and India is still unlikely unless India decides at the highest political level to sign the deal during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit to Delhi next month.

But the signing of a brief Memorandum of Understanding on sharing Teesta’s water is a possibility as the Indian water resources secretary, UN Panjiar, will come to Dhaka on January 3 and stay for four days to discuss the nitty-gritty details of sharing the waters of common rivers including Teesta.

‘The water resources secretaries of the two countries will discuss various issues including the sharing of Teesta River’s water in the first week of January. But we’re yet to set a date for the minister-level meeting of the JRC (Joint Rivers Commission),’ said foreign affairs minister Dipu Moni on Thursday.

Water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen told New Age on Thursday that he was ready to join a ministerial-level meeting of the JRC at any time. ‘We have completed the paper work, but everything depends on India.’

Foreign affairs secretary Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said on Thursday that the government is trying to hammer out an agreement on sharing Teesta River’s water as soon as possible.

‘Technical experts of the two countries held a meeting in Dhaka recently. Now a (water) secretary-level meeting will be held which will lead to the minister-level meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission,’ he said.

‘We will try to arrange a minister-level meeting of the JRC before the prime minister’s upcoming visit,’ said the foreign affairs secretary. ‘It will be held immediately after her visit if it isn’t possible before the visit.’

The secretary of the water resources ministry, Sheikh M Wahiduzzaman, confirmed that he would raise the issue of the sharing of Teesta River’s water during the meeting with his Indian counterpart here. ‘I’ll certainly raise the Teesta issue,’ he said firmly.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will fly to New Delhi on January 10 for a four-day state visit. Sources close to her told New Age that she had requested her Indian counterpart, Manmohan Singh, during meetings with him at the intervals of different international conferences to agree to an accord on the sharing of Teesta River’s water.

A senior official of the foreign affairs ministry told New Age on Thursday that a minister-level meeting of the JRC before the prime minister’s visit seemed unlikely as the secretary-level meeting would end on January 6, only four days before the PM’s visit.

Dhaka has, however, ‘unofficially’ let it be known that it expects an agreement on the sharing of the Teesta’s water, said the official.

Mohamed Mijarul Quayes said earlier that the highest political levels of the two countries could decide any time whether a full-fledged ‘agreement’ or a brief written commitment would be made on the issue.

The outgoing Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, told reporters on December 3 that the signing of an agreement on the Teesta would require intervention by the highest political levels of the two countries.

Dhaka is asking New Delhi to hold a minister-level meeting of the JRC. India has persistently expressed its inability to hold the meeting in last six years although at least two meetings are supposed to be held each year as per the rules of the JRC.

The two governments have so far readied the drafts of three agreements for being signed during Hasina’s visit: mutual legal assistance in criminal matters; combating international terrorism, organised crime and illicit drug trafficking; and transfer of sentenced persons. The Indian Cabinet recently approved the deal for returning sentenced persons.

The outstanding issues that Bangladesh has been trying to settle with India for several years include finalising the agreements for sharing the water of the Teesta and six other rivers, lands in adverse possession, un-demarcated borders, Dahagram and Angarpota enclaves and the Teen Bigha corridor.

New Delhi is also eager to designate Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria as a new port of call for Indian vessels and to be allowed to use Chittagong Port. Dhaka has agreed to let India carry over-sized equipment via Bangladesh to one of its north-eastern states to set up a power plant there.

Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India, which was earlier slated to begin on December 19, was deferred to January 10. She is going there on an invitation from Manmohan Singh.

 

[eastwatch]

Teesta deal unlikely: FM | Politics | bdnews24.com

Teesta deal unlikely: FM
Thu, Jan 7th, 2010 6:36 pm BdST

Dhaka, Jan 7 (bdnews24.com)友oreign minister Dipu Moni has said a deal on sharing waters of the Teesta river will not be possible during Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit to India.

Her statement came in a press conference on Thursday just two days after Bangladesh and India in secretary level talks of the Joint Rivers Commission had said they had "narrowed down" their differences of position on sharing Teesta waters and would continue efforts to "expedite" a deal.

 

[khabib]

Teesta deal unlikely: FM | Politics | bdnews24.com

Teesta deal unlikely: FM
Thu, Jan 7th, 2010 6:36 pm BdST

Dhaka, Jan 7 (bdnews24.com)友oreign minister Dipu Moni has said a deal on sharing waters of the Teesta river will not be possible during Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit to India.

Her statement came in a press conference on Thursday just two days after Bangladesh and India in secretary level talks of the Joint Rivers Commission had said they had "narrowed down" their differences of position on sharing Teesta waters and would continue efforts to "expedite" a deal.

For Hasina, it is pilgrim to goia as said by SAKA Chowdhury. Nothing for the benefit of the country called BD.