Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) brought out a procession in Rangpur on Monday demanding fair share of water from the Teesta River.
The BSD also demanded immediate steps for the protection of lives and the environment of the country.
Leaders of the BSD from different districts joined the program.
Earlier in the day, the BSD held a rally at Shapla Chattar area of the city where Bazlur Rashid Firoz, BSD general secretary, was present as the chief guest.
Speakers at the program alleged that the Teesta River, the lifeline of Rangpur division, has fallen under what they called Indian aggression. They said that entering the country through Nilphamari, the river crosses Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Rangpur and Gaibandha. But since 1998 India has been withdrawing water from the river unilaterally. Now it is considering digging two canals to draw more water from the river, they alleged.
Speakers said that the Indian side has already taken up a project to dig the canals, which will be 32 and 15 kilometers long respectively.
They said that local farmers get only 200-300 cusecs of water in the dry season and if the canals are dug, the volume of water will get even lower.
They said that the government is not taking any step in resolving the issue despite the fact that India is breaching international law by withdrawing water in a one-sided manner. They said that in the next few decades no water will enter the country in the dry season if there is no measure taken by the government. They called on the government to take immediate steps in this regard.
At a similar program, leaders of the Ganatantra Mancha on Saturday called on the government to take immediate steps to compel the Indian government to give Bangladesh a justified amount of water from the common river Teesta.
The mancha, a combine of seven political parties, held the rally at the Purana Paltan crossing, where Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh general secretary Saiful Huq said that the Awami League government had failed to obtain a justified quantity of Teesta water for Bangladesh.
India and Bangladesh share 54 rivers that flow down from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, the largest among them being the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The Teesta is a tributary of the Brahmaputra and flows through Sikkim and West Bengal before entering Bangladesh.