From CK Nayak
New Delhi: India has agreed to share ‘more comprehensive information’ with Bangladesh on two hydel projects in Meghalaya and also reaffirmed that New Delhi would take ‘no unilateral’ decision on the Himalayan component of the common rivers that might adversely affect Bangladesh.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid gave this assurance to his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni during their meeting at Brunei’s capital Darussalam on the sidelines of the 20th conference of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
Power-starved Meghalaya is planning to build two dams, one across the Umiew River known as the Mawphu Hydro Electric Project in the East Khasi Hills, and another on the Myntdu River called the Myntdu-Leshka Hydro Electric Project Stage-II in the Jaintia Hills.
Khurshid also assured Bangladesh of his efforts to get the land boundary agreement ratified in Parliament. Opposition parties including BJP are against this agreement.
Both Umiew and Myntdu rivers flow through Bangladesh where they are known as Umiyam and Shari rivers.
Earlier, Bangladesh had said in a letter that building dams on the two rivers flowing through both countries could affect Bangladesh by altering their flow.
Khurshid also proposed that the two sides should work on preparing ‘a long term vision plan’ for power generation and sharing. “Bangladesh’s demand for power would continue to grow in the near future and as our ability to generate electricity increases, Bangladesh should have the first claim to that outside India,” he said.
The two Ministers expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the recent tripartite meeting involving Bangladesh, Bhutan and India on hydro-power generation and connectivity. In their discussion on a whole range of bilateral issue, Khurshid also said that border killings were ‘totally unacceptable’.
Round table moots joint rivers panel: Meanwhile, an India-Bangladesh round table has suggested the creation of a single joint rivers commission headed by a prominent Indian or Bangladeshi leader on an alternative basis for sustainable management of their shared water resources.
The roundtable termed the current functioning of the Joint Rivers Commission “as extremely inadequate as there are in effect two parallel national river commissions, instead of one joint commission”. (With inputs from IANS)