The Awami League-led government’s “diplomatic success,” rather than BNP’s long march, convinced India to release more of the Teesta River water, said the chairman of a parliamentary watchdog on water resources, yesterday.
Ramesh Chandra Sen made the comment after chairing the first meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry.
Ramesh also said India will not cut the flow of water to the trans-boundary river, which is drying upon the Bangladesh side because of unilateral withdrawal of its waters upstream.
The meeting briefly discussed signing an accord with India to share the waters of the Teesta River, which is considered a lifeline for farming in the northern Rangpur and Dinajpur districts.
Ramesh, a former water resources minister, has claimed several times throughout his tenure during Awami League’s last term that a Teesta water-sharing deal would be signed “soon.”
He raised the Teesta issue at yesterday’s meeting in the presence of his successor, Anisul Islam Mahmud.
Ramesh said there was increased flow of water in the Teesta on Tuesday as New Delhi had put pressure on the West Bengal government.
“Because of the government’s diplomatic success, India released more of the Teesta’s water. This is not because of BNP’s long march,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a “pig headed” lady, Ramesh said she blocked the singing of a water-sharing deal during Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September 2011.