Dhaka, New Delhi set to sign Teesta Pact

Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said his country was set to reach an interim agreement with Bangladesh on Teesta and Feni rivers during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Dhaka visit next month, media reports said in New Delhi today.

"We expect an agreement on Teesta and Feni rivers," the Indian Express quoted him as telling a press conference also joined by Bangladesh premier's economic affairs adviser Moshiur Rahman after a meeting between the two.

Bansals said he was expected to visit Bangladesh to finalize the details of the agreement ahead of the Indian premier's Dhaka tour. His comments came two weeks after Indian external affairs minister SM Krishna told newsmen after talks with his counterpart Dipu Moni in Dhaka that two countries nearly finalised an interim agreement on the common Teesta and Feni rivers.

According to the Express report the water sharing issue gathered urgency in New Delhi as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina urged India to extend its hands for an early resolution on water sharing to pave the way for her country to take up projects downstream in Teesta.

It said Singh placed this issue on top priority and sent
National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon to Kolkata recently
to take West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee into
confidence over various options of the agreement.

The report said the West Bengal's concurrence particularly on
the Teesta was important as it already undertook irrigation
projects using the Teesta waters while the central government
needed to protect the interests of Bengal while meeting the
legitimate demands of Bangladesh.

"Mamata has indicated a forward looking approach and told the
Centre that she was more focused on an outcome instead of
dragging the matter for long" as the issue has been hanging fire
for about two decades the Express said quoting "highly placed
government sources".

Bangladesh and India in January this year issued a joint
statement in Dhaka saying they "removed differences" in reaching
an interim deal as top bureaucrats of water resources ministries
of the two neighbours joined a crucial meeting on sharing waters
of Teesta and Feni rivers.

The development was expected as protracted negotiations on
the Teesta since 1952 eluded a solution while the two neighbours
only exchanged papers to resolve the issue in the past decades.

The water of Teesta is crucial for Bangladesh, especially in
the leanest period from December to March. Sometimes in December
and January, the water flow comes down to less than 1,000 cusec
from 5,000 cusec.

Drastic fall in the water flow of Teesta during the lean
season, especially in February and March, seriously hampers
irrigation in Bangladesh while JRC sources said the flow of the
river weakened significantly in the last 24 years for Gajoldoba
barrage and some dams built in the upstream Indian region.

Bangladesh and India had inked a landmark treaty on sharing
of the Ganges water during Hasina's previous 1996-2001 tenure
removing a major irk in the bilateral ties. Deltaic Bangladesh is
crisscrossed by 230 major rivers, 54 of them mostly originating
from India.
News Source: BSS