Bangladeshi experts to visit controversial Indian dam project

August 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Ahead of Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni's visit to India Sep 7, Dhaka wants more information on Delhi's plan to build Tipaimukh dam in Manipur state, a senior official has said. Foreign Secretary Mirajul Quayes described last month's visit to India by a parliamentary team as "useful" and said the data supplied by India was being examined by a committee of experts, New Age newspaper reported Sunday.

July 31st, 2009 IMPHAL - A 10-member Bangladeshi parliamentary delegation visited the Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur Friday following the opposition in Dhaka over the hydel project's possible ecological impact. The delegation, led by parliament water resources standing committee chairman Abdur Razzaq, held a meeting with Indian Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in New Delhi Thursday before arriving in Manipur Friday.

July 26th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's opposition parties have opted out of a team that will visit the site of the Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. While Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has conveyed that their two lawmakers would not join it, a lone member of its Islamist ally Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Saturday said he had met with an accident and was unlikely to join.

July 18th, 2009 DHAKA - Protesters here began a 'long march' against a dam across the border in northeastern India as Bangladesh's main opposition rejected Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assurance that no work would be started without holding talks. Activists of Nirvik, an environmental organisation, Friday set out on a six-day 264 km march to Sylhet to mobilise public opinion against the dam project.

July 15th, 2009 Sharm-el-SHEIKH - The use of Bangladesh territory by Indian insurgent groups, the contentious Tipaimukh dam, railway projects as well as other issues were on the anvil when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina here Wednesday. The two prime ministers met for the first time since their respective electoral victories and congratulations were also in order.

July 13th, 2009 IMPHAL/AGARTALA - A 10-member Bangladesh parliamentary delegation is expected to visit the Tipaimukh dam in Manipur this week in the backdrop of concerns over the project's possible ecological impact in that country. The Bangladesh delegation led by parliamentary standing committee chairman on water resources Abdur Razzak is likely to arrive in New Delhi on a week-long visit July 15, a Bangladesh government official told IANS in Agartala.

July 7th, 2009 DHAKA - India's plan to build the Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river could benefit Bangladesh, a minister has said, urging a patient approach by all concerned as Dhaka prepares to send a team to visit the project site. The delay in finalising the team was because the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) was yet to nominate its members, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen said Monday.

July 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - The Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh has not committed any diplomatic impropriety while speaking 'frankly' during a discussion on the Tipaimukh dam project, a minister has said. The Indian high commissioner had allegedly called Bangladeshi water resources specialists protesting India's Tipaimukh dam project "so called experts" June 3.

June 24th, 2009 DHAKA - The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party has demanded immediate 'withdrawal' of the Indian high commissioner here after he allegedly called Bangladeshi water resources specialists protesting India's Tipaimukh dam project as "so called experts". The remark allegedly made by envoy Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty at a seminar in the presence of Foreign Minister Dipu Moni amounted to his interfering in Bangladesh's internal affairs, the BNP parliamentary party said.

June 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's main opposition leader Khaleda Zia has written a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that India should stop building the Tipaimukh dam in its north-eastern region. The Tipaimukh dam on the Barak river is in India's Manipur state.

June 20th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has expressed confidence that India would do "nothing harmful" on a proposed river dam in Manipur state in north-eastern India, a minister has said. Dhaka would do "everything possible if the dam proves to be a threat to Bangladesh's environment", Foreign Minister Dipu Moni told reporters Friday.

June 14th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's main opposition has threatened to move the United Nations as the Sheikh Hasina government has called for talks over a river valley project India is planning in its north-eastern region. Protests are gaining momentum even as a Bangladeshi parliamentary delegation, accompanied by experts, prepares to visit the planned Tipaimukh project on the Barak river in India's Mizoram state later this month.

May 27th, 2009 DHAKA - A team of lawmakers and experts from Bangladesh will visit the Tipaimukh project in India's northeast to study if it could adversely affect the flow of river Barak that is common to both the South Asian neighbours. The team was being dispatched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following a proposal mooted earlier this month by India through its high commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty.

May 3rd, 2009 DHAKA - New Delhi Sunday handed to Dhaka a list of suspected Indian terrorists believed to be hiding in Bangladesh, the Indian high commissioner here said. Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Bangladeshi State Minister for Home Affairs Tanjim Ahmed Sohel Taj, India's Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti said: 'We have also requested the authorities to step up vigil over them especially during the ongoing polls yet to be completed in the eastern states of India.' The envoy added that a number of issues, including extradition of prisoners, came up for discussion.

February 15th, 2009 DHAKA - Indian singer Manna Dey says the Dhaka audience is better than that in Kolkata, which makes him come to the Bangladesh capital more often. 'As the Bangladeshi listeners are better than the Kolkata audience, I come here off and on,' he said on the eve of his performance here.