Dhaka,Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina today criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee for her "extremely unfortunate" stance against the Teesta
water sharing deal, but expressed optimism on resolving the issue through
dialogue."It was extremely unfortunate, the chief minister of an Indian
state, Mamata Banerjee raised objection (in signing the deal)... it was very
unfortunate. We saw the central government of India was sincere in inking the
agreement," Hasina told officials of Water Resources Ministry at the
Bangladesh Secretariat.Hasina, however, added she was optimistic about the deal
saying "We hope we could solve the problem through discussion".
This is the first time that
Hasina has sharply come down on Banerjee, categorically putting the blame on
her for the setback in the deal.Her comments came four days after water
resource minister Anisul Islam Mahmud said Bangladesh awaited resolution of the
long pending water sharing issue of the Teesta and other common rivers after
the Indian election. The
deal was scheduled to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's
visit to Bangladesh in 2011,
but deal has to be shelved as Banerjee had
objected to the proposed quantum of waters, saying it would harm her state.She
also scrapped her Dhaka tour accompanying Singh at that time.The Teesta water
is crucial for Bangladesh, especially in the leanest period from December to
March when the water flow often temporarily comes down to less than 1,000 cusec
from 5,000 cusec every year. But for the first time in history, Bangladesh
received only around 500 cusecs for three months since January, a water
development board official told here.
He, however, said the flow
witnessed a dramatic increase with the start of monsoon rains since last month
and "today the quantum was measured to be 5,000 cusecs, which is usual for
this time of the year".Officials said massive withdrawal of waters at the
upstream of the Teesta severely affected the major Boro crops particularly in
four northwestern districts, often called as granary of Bangladesh. The drastic fall in the flow prompted Bangladesh's foreign
minister Shahidul Haque to
take up the issue with his counterpart in Delhi two months ago.Officials
here said Teesta water
is vital for irrigating around 6.4 lakh hectares
of cropland in Bangladesh's northwestern part during the lean season while
India has taken up a scheme recently to irrigate nine lakhhectares of its land with water from Teesta.Bangladesh is criss-crossed by
dozens of major rivers with 54 originating from India with only one bilateral
treaty signed on the sharing of Ganges water in 1996.
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