Tipaimukh team plays trick on media people
The parliamentary delegation scheduled to visit the site of India's controversial Tipaimukh dam project this week is playing trick on media people willing to accompany it at their own costs.
Jatiya Sangsad speaker Abdul Hamid and delegation leader Abdur Razzak, when approached in the past weeks by mainstream electronic and print media, shifted the responsibility to each other in an apparent move to discourage journalists from travelling with the team and covering the crucial six-day trip.
'It is not my cup of tea. It entirely depends on the delegation chief. If he thinks he will include journalists in the delegation, he can do it. I have no hand in it,' the speaker told a group of journalists who requested him to facilitate the visit of a media team along with the delegation.
Razzak earlier said that the speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad was to decide whether the delegation would be accompanied by journalists.
When the speaker's response was conveyed to him, the team leader told the reporters that he would get back to them after consulting the speaker.
Razzak, however, had a different suggestion for the media people at his July 19 press conference at the parliament media centre.
'You should try on your own. You can contact with the foreign ministry or with New Delhi as we have hardly anything to do for your inclusion in the delegation,'
Some media people followed his advice and rushed to the foreign ministry, which said it was not in a position to facilitate the visit of any journalist to cover the trip at this stage.
'We will look into the matter sometime later,' a top official of the ministry told an executive of an electronic media.
The 10-member parliamentary delegation will fly to New Delhi on July 29 for talks with Indian water resources minister and then visit by helicopter the project site in north-east Indian State of Manipur. BNP lawmakers skipped joining the team.
The Tipaimukh issue has become a hot topic for the media with pressure mounting from political parties and conservationists on the government to stop India from constructing its planned dam on the cross-boundary river Barak in its Manipur state.
Bangladeshi experts fear that the Tipaimukh dam would cause ecological imbalance in the downstream Sylhet region of Bangladesh. The Indian government says the project would not harm Bangladesh.
During a meeting with prime minister Sheikh Hasina in Egypt, Indian prime minister Manmohan Sing assured that India would not build any structure there which could be harmful for downstream Bangladesh.
Main opposition party BNP chairperson and former prime minister Khaleda Zia in a letter requested the Indian premier to abandon the Tipaimukh project.
The ruling Awami League took a 'wait and see' policy as it believed that the disputes could be resolved through negotiations.
Indian high commissioner Pinak Chakravarty's unguarded remarks about local experts fuelled the uproar over the controversial project, while contradictory statements of a number of ministers contributed to the debates and confusions over the issue, drawing huge media attention over the months. http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jul/28/front.html |
__._,_.___
[Disclaimer: ALOCHONA Management is not liable for information contained in this message. The author takes full responsibility.]
To unsubscribe/subscribe, send request to alochona-owner@egroups.com 
__,_._,___