JRC meet on Tipai issue : Former Water Resource Minister’s Demand
BNP vice-chairman M Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, also a former water resources minister, on Sunday asked the government to take initiatives for a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission on Tipaimukh issue as the parliamentary delegation was returning empty-handed.‘The parliamentary delegation having no technical experts went to India and the delegation members are returning without visiting the site of the proposed dam at Tipaimukh. So the government should take initiatives to hold a meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission and place people’s demands there as it is the only forum which included experts of both the countries,’ he told television channels at his house at Banani. Hafiz said in the past two meetings of the commission, in New Delhi and Dhaka, when he was in office, Bangladesh had raised objections to the Tipaimukh project. ‘It was the Awami League government which in the first commission meeting in 1972 gave consent to such a project. Now the Awami League is passing the blame on the BNP.’ Hafiz said the parliamentary team could go to Tipaimukh by road and it had decided to go to the site in a helicopter to avoid protests by the people of Manipur. ‘The team members could have waited for a few more days and visit the site. I do not understand why they are returning empty handed. He alleged Bangladesh had been asking for data and information on the Tipaimukh project for three decades, but India was yet to respond to the call.
We generally agree with the view of the former Water Resources minister that meeting of the Joint Rivers Commission should be held. This has become a major problem between India and Bangladesh and this deserves early solution.As of now it appears that it wil affect Bangladesh in every possible way including environment, water management, salinity , fisheries, siltation , alluvial soil, irrigation, rivers and so on.We also ask the Indian government to provide Bangladesh with all data.
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