India and Bangladesh in talks for major river agreement!
INTERNATIONAL DESK: India and Bangladesh are possible to ink as a minimum one most important river agreement later this month, The Hindu has learned. The planning for the agreement is being tightly guarded by means of officials on each aspects as water sharing between the 2 countries is taken into consideration to be a touchy situation given the reality that it regularly takes political which means.
Apart from the foremost settlement(s) under discussion, sharing of facts of river waters and higher flood control planning are expected to characteristic in the imminent assembly of the Joint River Commission (JRC) with the intention to meet inside the closing week of August in advance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s September 6-7 India go to.
In response to a query, The Hindu learned that there is a sturdy possibility that an settlement on the Kushiyara that flows from Assam into Bangladesh is part of one such agreement that may get done in the course of the JRC. A diplomatic source additionally hinted at a first-rate settlement involving the Ganga will also be taken up as there is a sturdy urge to acquire a large river agreement beforehand of Prime Minister Hasina’s visit, which can be her ultimate trip to Delhi before Dhaka goes into election mode next yr.
Teesta waters agreement
The Awami League authorities has been insistent on sealing the Teesta waters settlement, which has eluded agreement thus far. Ms. Hasina visited India all through October 2019 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka in March 2021 and throughout all high-stage interactions, Bangladesh conveyed its urgency over the Teesta trouble.
In that context, Indian High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami had in advance stated domestic challenges hinting on the position of the West Bengal authorities, at the same time as explaining the put off within the Teesta waters settlement. However, it is understood that India has agreed to provide Bangladesh a package on river waters-associated deals as a way to be taken into consideration a substantial development in phrases of sharing of river resources with Dhaka.
While political ties between Delhi and Kolkata have been a reason that reputedly stalled Teesta waters, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was in Delhi closing week and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on problems which might be applicable to her country. Ms. Banerjee’s go to, which came inside the backdrop of the tightly-guarded India-Bangladesh negotiation, has contributed to the hypothesis on river water sharing between India and Bangladesh.
Other rivers in focus
Convening the JRC has been an extended-pending call for of Bangladesh because the ministerial-level assembly was remaining held in 2010. While several rivers-associated traits have unfolded among the 2 facets inside the meantime that want to accept a coherent policy-associated form, the JRC is the perfect platform for such tasks.
It is thought that the following JRC will awareness on the effective aspect and take the negotiation past the Teesta and to other massive rivers and accentuate collaboration on the rivers like Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gomti, Dharla and Dudhkumar, in which India and Bangladesh have more scope of collaboration. Trans-boundary rivers represent an critical component at the back of the latest monetary achievement of Bangladesh because it generates livelihood for hundreds of thousands within the united states.
Bangladesh and India percentage fifty four rivers and Dhaka has been eager on getting access to extra facts from the Indian side to plot better fisheries and flood control strategies. The Hindu got the influence that extending the time restriction for sharing of flood manipulate-associated information may be on the desk at some point of the JRC to help Bangladesh prepare to cope with the devastating consequences of the once a year floods.
Both aspects also are expected to take in the Ganga Waters Treaty of 1996 this is scheduled to be renewed in 2026. The treaty became signed by using Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda and PM Hasina in December 12, 1996 and turned into expected to be renewed after thirty years. Apart from these problems, discount of river pollutants and multiplied navigation also are at the agenda.