India should give Bangladesh its fair share of water from common rivers like Teesta and sort out long-standing water sharing issues, Tripura Governor Tathagata Roy has said.
He also criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for her stand on sharing Teesta water with Bangladesh.
“India cannot deny water to Bangladesh and the issues need to be resolved through arbitration, joint commission or other such mechanisms,” he said on Tuesday at the 8th India-Bangladesh Friendship Dialogue in Assam, reports
Hindustan Times.
The Tripura governor clarified that it was his personal opinion.
A Guwahati Declaration was announced from the programme for greater cooperation between the Delhi and Dhaka in security, communication and trade.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam emphasised greater collaboration between Northeast India and Bangladesh to enhance bilateral trade and make up the huge trade deficit between the neighbours.
The sharing of Teesta water has been a thorny bilateral issue. Mamata insists that the river does not have enough water to share.
Roy called for a comprehensive plan to ensure Bangladesh got its share of water from rivers flowing from India into Bangladesh and that the latter should also agree to share the burden of water shortage.
“Every international river should have some share of its water for the lower riparian state under the tenets of public international laws,” he was quoted as saying by
The Indian Express.
Governor Roy noted that dams built by China upstream of the Brahmaputra and other rivers that flow into Bangladesh would hit the latter harder than India.
He said China's building of a series of dams on Yarlung Zangbo – upstream of Brahmaputra – and river diversion would have serious affects on Bangladesh, a lower riparian country.