Dhaka to send lawmakers to study Indian river 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 28th, 2009 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.

July 27th, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh team preparing to study the Tipaimukh dam project in India has promised to do its 'best', but says it would depend upon the extent to which the hosts facilitate all its movements. "We will not be able to roam around at will while visiting the Tipaimukh dam, as we will be guided by the Indian counterpart," chief of the delegation Abdur Razzaq, who is also chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on water resources, told the media 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 14th, 2009 DHAKA - Bangladesh has postponed the visit of a team of lawmakers and water resources experts to the site of the Tipaimukh dam project in India as it awaits the finalisation of the tour dates after their leaders meet during the NAM summit. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has left for Egypt's Sharm-al-Shaikh town to attend the 15th Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit, is expected to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on its sidelines, media reports said Tuesday.

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 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 4th, 2009 DHAKA - The Bangladesh government is coming under increasing pressures from its own ministers and ruling Awami League lawmakers to hold urgent bilateral talks with India, which is planning to build a dam on the Barak river the two neighbours share, a media report here said Saturday. Pressures are mounting as the government prepares to send a delegation of parliamentarians and experts to visit the project site.

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 25th, 2009 DHAKA - Opposition leader Khaleda Zia is free to send her own team to see the Tipaimukh dam project in India, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said while reiterating her decision to send an all-party parliamentary team to look it up. Accusing her political rival of seeking political mileage out of the proposed dam project on Barak river in India's Manipur state, Hasina assured that her government would study the reports submitted by both teams and decide "in the best interest of the country".

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 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 16th, 2009 DHAKA - A Bangladeshi team of parliamentarians and water experts is to visit an Indian dam construction project to assess its possible ecological effects on the country, a parliamentary panel said Tuesday. "We have decided to send a delegation to India to witness its Tipaimukh project," said Abdur Razzak, the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the Water Resources Ministry.

April 14th, 2009 DHAKA - India has invited Bangladesh to send a delegation to visit the construction site of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam on the Barak river to allay Dhaka's fears. New Delhi made the gesture Monday during a 'surprise' visit by Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon, media reports said Tuesday.