DHAKA - Bangladesh will insist on a joint study to determine any adverse impact on its ecology that a dam India proposes to build near its border, a senior politician said Tuesday.
A day before a Bangladesh team’s departure for New Delhi, former Water Resource Minister Abdur Razzak was quoted by bdnews24.com as saying that pending such a study, he would seek a assurance that India will not go ahead with the project, nor divert water from the river that is common to both neighbours.
Razzak, who will lead an 11-member team, told the website that as per the minutes of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meetings and a Bangladesh study on the proposed dam, if India solely implements a power project in Tipaimukh, it would not harm Dhaka’s interests.
Tipaimukh dam is proposed to be built on Barak river in India’s Manipur state.
“Despite the study and the JRC agreements, we will propose carrying out a joint-study to know whether the Tipaimukh dam will cause any harm to Bangladesh,” said Razzaq, who is also the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry.
He said Bangladesh had been opposing implementation of the irrigation project over Barak river since 1978.
“We will firmly ask the Indian side that they must not implement the irrigation project at Phulertala. Because, irrigation project means water diversion (from the upstream),” he told the website.
The team leaving Dhaka for New Delhi Wednesday will have lawmakers, officials and a water resource expert.
India invited the team two months ago after a section of environmentalists and NGOs began campaigning against the project.
But the issue got politicised and Bangladesh’s opposition parties have joined the protests.
There have been protest rallies outside the Indian high commission here.
Main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party kept out of the visit and its chief, former prime minister Khaleda Zia has written to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to abandon the project.
The Bangladesh Jatiya Party Monday filed a writ before the Dhaka High Court opposing the team’s visit. The party challenged what it called the ‘inaction’ of the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, New Age newspaper said.
The team will meet India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Minister of State for Power Bharatsinh Solanki before leaving for the project site in Manipur.
A meeting with Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal would not be held as New Delhi did not want it, New Age said Wednesday.
Meeting Hasina in Egypt earlier this month, Manmohan Singh had assured that India would not do anything that could harm Bangladesh’s interests. Both sides have since said they would resolve the issue through talks.
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