Dhaka opposition wants parliamentary debate on India pacts

September 13th, 2009 DHAKA - A cross-section of opinion makers in Bangladesh have welcomed a Dhaka-Delhi resolve to improve connectivity among the South Asian neighbours, but have expressed reservations on many counts. They see the development as a window of opportunity to improve economic ties with landlocked Bhutan and Nepal, but also lament the loss of a prospective market in India's north-eastern region.

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 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 24th, 2009 DHAKA - China has expressed support for talks between Dhaka and New Delhi over the proposed construction of Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. The Barak river, on which the dam is to be built, flows from China into India and then goes to Bangladesh.

July 13th, 2009 DHAKA - The prime ministers of Bangladesh and India are expected to meet this week on the sidelines of the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Summit to discuss New Delhi's plan to construct the Tipaimukh dam in Manipur, a move that has triggered protests in Dhaka. Dhaka and New Delhi have indicated their willingness to talk on the issue as pressures have mounted on the Sheikh Hasina government, with opposition parties joining environmentalists to allege that the dam on the Barak river would deny Bangladesh its share of water and have deleterious effect on the environment.

July 5th, 2009 DHAKA - At least 10 people, including five policemen, were injured Sunday when the members of a rights body clashed with the police outside the Indian high commission here, protesting the construction of Tipaimukh dam in India's Manipur state. The clash took place around 11:30 a.m.

July 2nd, 2009 DHAKA - A former speaker of Bangladesh parliament and two former officials may be asked to return Taka 17.1 million ($285,000) that a parliamentary committee has said were "misappropriated" by them. Former speaker Jamiruddin Sircar, his deputy Akhtar Hamid Siddiqui and chief whip of the Bangladesh Nationalist party (BNP) Handaker Delwar Hossain, drew the money as medical allowances and additional fuel allowances "ignoring the law", an all-party parliamentary probe committee has ruled.

June 29th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh opposition leader Khaleda Zia Monday sought the help of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for sending a separate team to visit the Tipaimukh dam project site located in India's northeast. She accepted a suggestion made last week by Hasina that the opposition was free to send its own team, Star Online reported.

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 19th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's political parties continue to spar over a river valley project India is planning in its northeastern region as New Delhi awaits a parliamentary team accompanied by experts to visit the project site. Finance Minister A.M.A.

May 28th, 2009 DHAKA - Travel between Dhaka and Kolkata by ship, something that stopped over four decades back, may be revived to promote people-to-people contact and eco-tourism. Bangladesh Shipping Minister Afsarul Amin Wednesday commended a proposal mooted by the parliament's standing committee.

May 27th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh is mooting a trans-border gas corridor connecting Iran and Myanmar through several countries including India. The move comes close on the heels of its decision to join the Asian rail and road highways, after staying away for years from joining the network.

May 8th, 2009 DHAKA - The European Union Thursday stressed the need for better parliamentary partnership between Bangladesh's ruling and opposition parties for a healthy growth of the country's nascent democracy. 'Discussions, debates and critical analyses of the problems should be there [in parliament] in a healthy democracy,' Stefan Frowein, the head of the delegation of the EU's executive, the European Commission to Dhaka, told a press conference in Dhaka.

February 23rd, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh's mainstream opposition parties Sunday said they would to return to parliament, ending their 16-day boycott of parliamentary proceedings. 'We have decided to return to this session at the earliest,' opposition alliance chief whip Zainul Abedin Farruk said after a meeting of the parliamentary wing of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headed by former prime minister Khaleda Zia.

February 8th, 2009 DHAKA - India and Bangladesh Monday rejuvenated their multi-faceted ties by signing two economic pacts and joining hands to combat the growing menace of terrorism in the region. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a day-long visit to Dhaka, held talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni on an entire gamut of bilateral issues, including security, terrorism, intensification of economic ties, border management and improving connectivity.