Staff Correspondent
BNP standing committee member Barrister Moudud Ahmed MP alleged that the parliamentary committee on Tipaimukh dam was formed to legitimise the construction of the dam by India as the committee did not include any member of parliament from the BNP.
He was addressing a roundtable discussion titled ‘Independence and security of Bangladesh: Lessons from Palashi’ hosted by ‘The weekly Sonar Bangla’ at the National press club yesterday morning.
“The committee on Tipaimukh dam is just an eyewash and it is aimed at validating the Indian move. The committee did not include any member from BNP. How could it be an all party committee?” Moudud said.
He demanded for sending a national level expert committee to have their opinion about the issue. “We want formation of a national level expert committee to assess the possible impact of the project to be implemented by India on Barak river. After getting their opinion, we will be able to take a stand against India’s move.” The government must make public all the finding of the expert committee on the Tipaimukh hydro-electric project and people should raise its voice against such an ecologically destructive project in the country’s interest, the former law minister said.
He said a strong political consensus is required to launch a tougher movement demanding cancellation of the Tipaimukh project. Construction of the planned Tipaimukh dam by India will escalate socio-economic and political tension in Bangladesh, and imperil the ecology of the country’s north-eastern parts, he said.
The BNP leader repeatedly demanded trial of just retired Army chief general Moeen U Ahmed for his controversial role in harassing politicians in the name of eradicating corruption from the society during caretaker regime. The Pilkhana incident was orchestrated by a certain quarter to hide the failure of immediate past caretaker regime, he alleged.
Meanwhile secretary general of the party Khandaker Delwar Hossain alleged that extra judicial killings are on the rise soon after this government assumed office.
“It is the government’s duty to ensure security to the people of the country. But the government has failed to ensure people’s security over the last six months. Extra judicial killings have increased alarmingly. If we go through the reports of different Human Rights organizations, we will find the actual facts of extra judicial killings,” Delwar told reporters after seeing dead body of Manjur Morshed Shipu, an activist of Mohammadpur thana BNP, at Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue yesterday.
Source: www.thebangladeshtoday.com
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Bangladesh team to Tipaimukh could face militants
[Inpui-news&info feature]
The Bangladesh parliamentary team is to visit the proposed Tipaimukh dam site in India this month, said Ramesh Chandra Sen, water resource minister of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
The Bangladeshi team will have no representative from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which have voiced objections to the controversial mega-hydropower project.
What the Bangladesh team probably don't realized is that a visit to Tipaimukh dam site (in Hmarram) could be extremely dangerous. The area is the a stronghold of many heavily armed militants, among them the Hmar People's Convention(D) and Hmar National Army.
There are also talks of Minipuri (valley-based) militants trying to get back into Tipaimukh area after they were flushed out by the army some years ago.
The Bangladesh parliamentary team is to visit the proposed Tipaimukh dam site in India this month, said Ramesh Chandra Sen, water resource minister of Bangladesh, on Wednesday.
The Bangladeshi team will have no representative from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which have voiced objections to the controversial mega-hydropower project.
What the Bangladesh team probably don't realized is that a visit to Tipaimukh dam site (in Hmarram) could be extremely dangerous. The area is the a stronghold of many heavily armed militants, among them the Hmar People's Convention(D) and Hmar National Army.
There are also talks of Minipuri (valley-based) militants trying to get back into Tipaimukh area after they were flushed out by the army some years ago.
Many people are trying to reap political gains: Muhith
Dhaka, June 19: Many people are trying to reap political gains from the so-called Tipaimukh Dam movement, the finance minister AMA Muhith has alleged.
Speaking at National Tipaimukh Dam Conference 2009 at the auditorium of Institution of Engineers, Banglaesh in the capital on Friday, he proposed a regional forum based on river basin to resolve crisis involving river.
Muhith said three things should be kept in mind while constructing Tipaimukh Dam-– whether biodiversity will be affected, whether the risk of an earthquake will increase because of a big dam and whether the natural flow of Barak river will be affected or not.
He said he would know about these things after the visit of the parliamentary representative committee at Tipaimukh lead by Awami League MP leader Abdur Razzak.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni told the reporters on Friday that a delegation would soon visit India.
At the same time she said India had recently provided Bangladesh with information on the proposed Tipaimukh Dam
Some political parties as well as water resource experts apprehend an environmental disaster in the greater Sylhet region of Bangladesh in the wake of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam
But New Delhi holds that the hydroelectric project would not pose any barrier to the availability of water downstream.
He said the talk of constructing Tipaimukh dam was first raised at the meeting of the Joint River Commission in 1972 and 73.
Later in the meeting of the commission in 2003 and 2005 the opinion of Bangladesh was sought about the plans of India. But the then government did not say anything, he said
"In 2004, we opposed this project in the trans-boundary river convention. But now we observe that many are trying to curry favour in the name of movement.
Muhith proposed an 'executive board on river basin' to monitor the river basins of the region including those of Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal and China.
"They are opposing Tipaimukh from the viewpoint of opposing India. We will have to be aware of them," he said.
"The issue of our right over water flow will supersede our loss in the construction of Tipaimukh Dam," said Workers Party chief Rashed Khan Menon MP, elected from Awami League-led Grand Alliance.
The vast regions of Manipur, Mizoram and Assam will be damaged along with Bangladesh, said general secretary of Bangladesher Communist Party Mujahidul Islam Selim.
"The Indian government will have to bear the consequences if the bilateral ties between the two countries are at stake," he cautioned
"This dam will cause disaster to the agro-based culture of riverine Bangladesh," said Hilal Uddin, chief coordinator of the preparation committee of the convention.
"There are many dangers of a big dam. It drowns human habitation, increases the risks of water-borne diseases and earthquake, causes diseases from gas created from water logging and decreases siltation," he said
Uddin said the natural flows of the rivers Surma, Kushiara and Meghna will also be affected because of the dam.
Source: www.bdnew24.com
Speaking at National Tipaimukh Dam Conference 2009 at the auditorium of Institution of Engineers, Banglaesh in the capital on Friday, he proposed a regional forum based on river basin to resolve crisis involving river.
Muhith said three things should be kept in mind while constructing Tipaimukh Dam-– whether biodiversity will be affected, whether the risk of an earthquake will increase because of a big dam and whether the natural flow of Barak river will be affected or not.
He said he would know about these things after the visit of the parliamentary representative committee at Tipaimukh lead by Awami League MP leader Abdur Razzak.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni told the reporters on Friday that a delegation would soon visit India.
At the same time she said India had recently provided Bangladesh with information on the proposed Tipaimukh Dam
Some political parties as well as water resource experts apprehend an environmental disaster in the greater Sylhet region of Bangladesh in the wake of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam
But New Delhi holds that the hydroelectric project would not pose any barrier to the availability of water downstream.
He said the talk of constructing Tipaimukh dam was first raised at the meeting of the Joint River Commission in 1972 and 73.
Later in the meeting of the commission in 2003 and 2005 the opinion of Bangladesh was sought about the plans of India. But the then government did not say anything, he said
"In 2004, we opposed this project in the trans-boundary river convention. But now we observe that many are trying to curry favour in the name of movement.
Muhith proposed an 'executive board on river basin' to monitor the river basins of the region including those of Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Nepal and China.
"They are opposing Tipaimukh from the viewpoint of opposing India. We will have to be aware of them," he said.
"The issue of our right over water flow will supersede our loss in the construction of Tipaimukh Dam," said Workers Party chief Rashed Khan Menon MP, elected from Awami League-led Grand Alliance.
The vast regions of Manipur, Mizoram and Assam will be damaged along with Bangladesh, said general secretary of Bangladesher Communist Party Mujahidul Islam Selim.
"The Indian government will have to bear the consequences if the bilateral ties between the two countries are at stake," he cautioned
"This dam will cause disaster to the agro-based culture of riverine Bangladesh," said Hilal Uddin, chief coordinator of the preparation committee of the convention.
"There are many dangers of a big dam. It drowns human habitation, increases the risks of water-borne diseases and earthquake, causes diseases from gas created from water logging and decreases siltation," he said
Uddin said the natural flows of the rivers Surma, Kushiara and Meghna will also be affected because of the dam.
Source: www.bdnew24.com
Dhaka parties spar over Tipaimukh Dam
Dhaka, June 19: Bangladesh's political parties continue to spar over a river valley project India is planning in its northeastern region as New Delhi awaits a parliamentary team accompanied by experts to visit the project site.
Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith Friday urged "all to be aware" of any movement against the Tipaimukh dam project "by a certain quarter to gain its political interest," Star Online web site said.
Muhith criticised the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for not protesting against the Indian plans although the latter had completed the design and detailed studies and floated an international tender during the BNP-Jamaat rule (2001-06).
Addressing the "National Tipaimukh Dam Conference 2009", the finance minister, among the most experienced ministers in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, said public opinion could have been mobilised earlier.
India is planning to build the dam over the Barak river in Manipur state, upstream of Bangladesh where the river, part of the gigantic Brahmaputra river system, is called Meghna.
The minister joined the debate as opposition parties, environmentalists and NGOs are building up protests that are similar that raged for long over India's dam over the Ganga at Farakka.
The two South Asian neighbours signed a bilateral treaty in 1997 that provides for India releasing more water to the lower riparian neighbour, particularly during the summer months.
The BNP, led by opposition leader and two-term prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, has accused the Hasina government of a "sell-out" and working against the national interest - a common refrain on projects and issues pertaining to India.
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain last Tuesday asked people to raise their voices against the Hasina government "as it is mum about the Indian plan", the website of the Daily Star newspaper said.
Tipaimukh is linked to the Asian Highway, an United Nations - Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) project that Dhaka is preparing to join, upturning the earlier policy of the Zia government.
Hossain alleged that the Hasina government "is now trying to help (India to) complete them (the projects)".
India has in the last four years "refrained from sharing technical information" with Bangladesh, "triggering public uncertainty and outcry over its possible negative impact on the neighbouring country" (Bangladesh), the website said.
The proposal for a visit by a parliamentary team was made last month by New Delhi and accepted by Dhaka.
While India has not started construction, it floated an international tender in 2005 and opened the bid in 2006.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith Friday urged "all to be aware" of any movement against the Tipaimukh dam project "by a certain quarter to gain its political interest," Star Online web site said.
Muhith criticised the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for not protesting against the Indian plans although the latter had completed the design and detailed studies and floated an international tender during the BNP-Jamaat rule (2001-06).
Addressing the "National Tipaimukh Dam Conference 2009", the finance minister, among the most experienced ministers in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government, said public opinion could have been mobilised earlier.
India is planning to build the dam over the Barak river in Manipur state, upstream of Bangladesh where the river, part of the gigantic Brahmaputra river system, is called Meghna.
The minister joined the debate as opposition parties, environmentalists and NGOs are building up protests that are similar that raged for long over India's dam over the Ganga at Farakka.
The two South Asian neighbours signed a bilateral treaty in 1997 that provides for India releasing more water to the lower riparian neighbour, particularly during the summer months.
The BNP, led by opposition leader and two-term prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, has accused the Hasina government of a "sell-out" and working against the national interest - a common refrain on projects and issues pertaining to India.
BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain last Tuesday asked people to raise their voices against the Hasina government "as it is mum about the Indian plan", the website of the Daily Star newspaper said.
Tipaimukh is linked to the Asian Highway, an United Nations - Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) project that Dhaka is preparing to join, upturning the earlier policy of the Zia government.
Hossain alleged that the Hasina government "is now trying to help (India to) complete them (the projects)".
India has in the last four years "refrained from sharing technical information" with Bangladesh, "triggering public uncertainty and outcry over its possible negative impact on the neighbouring country" (Bangladesh), the website said.
The proposal for a visit by a parliamentary team was made last month by New Delhi and accepted by Dhaka.
While India has not started construction, it floated an international tender in 2005 and opened the bid in 2006.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Friday, June 19, 2009
India finally sends info on Tipaimukh dam
Dhaka, June 19 (bdnews24.com)—India has finally provided Bangladesh with information on the proposed Tipaimukh Dam after Dhaka's repeated requests, foreign minister Dipu Moni has said.
The information package has been forwarded to the water resources ministry and the Joint Rivers Commission, she told reporters on Friday.
"The government will now analyse the data received and sift through the information," she said after inaugurating a fair organised by the Foreign Office Wives' Association in the morning at the state guest house 'Padma'.
In case the proposed dam emerges to be seriously threatening Bangladesh's environment and ecology, the government will do everything in its power to oppose it and stop its construction, she added.
She, however, was sanguine that the Indian government will not do anything that might harm Bangladesh.
The minister said, "Our parliamentary delegation will soon visit the project site in India and submit a report to the government on return."
"The government will take necessary decision after reviewing relevant data and the report of the parliamentary delegates."
India began the construction work of Tipaimukh project damming the Barak river in 2003. It started the construction later last year without consulting Bangladesh.
Bangladesh environmentalists are concerned about the dam's impact on the Meghna greater Sylhet region in northeast Bangladesh.
Bangladesh gets 7 to 8 percent of its total water from the Barak in India's northeastern states. Millions of people are dependent on hundreds of water bodies, fed by the Barak, in the Sylhet region for fishing and agricultural activities.
The Barak assumes the name Kushiyara upon entering Bangladesh territory which travelling further downstream gets to be known as the Surma.
India says that the hydropower project will not harm Bangladesh.
According to some reports, the proposed Tipaimukh dam across the river Barak in the Indian state of Monipur will be 162.5 metres high and 390 metres long to create a reservoir by permanently submerging some 2.75 square kilometres of land.
India expects to generate around 1500 megawatt of hydropower from the project.
The information package has been forwarded to the water resources ministry and the Joint Rivers Commission, she told reporters on Friday.
"The government will now analyse the data received and sift through the information," she said after inaugurating a fair organised by the Foreign Office Wives' Association in the morning at the state guest house 'Padma'.
In case the proposed dam emerges to be seriously threatening Bangladesh's environment and ecology, the government will do everything in its power to oppose it and stop its construction, she added.
She, however, was sanguine that the Indian government will not do anything that might harm Bangladesh.
The minister said, "Our parliamentary delegation will soon visit the project site in India and submit a report to the government on return."
"The government will take necessary decision after reviewing relevant data and the report of the parliamentary delegates."
India began the construction work of Tipaimukh project damming the Barak river in 2003. It started the construction later last year without consulting Bangladesh.
Bangladesh environmentalists are concerned about the dam's impact on the Meghna greater Sylhet region in northeast Bangladesh.
Bangladesh gets 7 to 8 percent of its total water from the Barak in India's northeastern states. Millions of people are dependent on hundreds of water bodies, fed by the Barak, in the Sylhet region for fishing and agricultural activities.
The Barak assumes the name Kushiyara upon entering Bangladesh territory which travelling further downstream gets to be known as the Surma.
India says that the hydropower project will not harm Bangladesh.
According to some reports, the proposed Tipaimukh dam across the river Barak in the Indian state of Monipur will be 162.5 metres high and 390 metres long to create a reservoir by permanently submerging some 2.75 square kilometres of land.
India expects to generate around 1500 megawatt of hydropower from the project.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
"Dam"aging India-Bangladesh Relations
by- J. Sri Raman
Ever since India's general election, ending in the rout of the far right, international and regional attention has been focused on the country's relations with Pakistan and the prospects of their improvement. Unnoticed, meanwhile, is the ongoing damage threatened by India's proposed hydroelectric dam to its relations with Bangladesh, which an earlier ballot had promised to boost.
In the Bangladesh general election of December 2008, the Awami League (AL) of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed won a landslide victory despite attempts to pin the pro-India tag on her by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami (Jei). India seemed to have disappeared from the Bangladeshi political debate for some time, with the proposal for war crime trials threatening only to put Pakistan in the dock again.
India, however, figures in unflattering slogans at public rallies and street demonstrations staged over the past weeks. These are protests against the proposed dam, which seem as inimical to both the economy and environment of Bangladesh. The project is also resented as a display of big-brotherly disdain by India for the sensibilities of its eastern neighbor.
The BNP, with the support of almost all non-AL parties, has threatened to move the United Nations over the Tipaimukh project. The dam is being built across the Barak river on the border of India's northeastern States of Manipur and Mizoram, just 100 kilometers away from Bangladesh. The Barak becomes Meghna in Bangladesh, which the dam will reduce to the status of a lower riparian state.
Originally designed only to contain floods in the lower Barak Valley, the revised project aims to meet the power needs of India's rebellious northeast with an installed generating capacity of 1,500 megawatts. The dam is expected to submerge permanently an area of 275.50 square kilometers.
The protests can strike a popular chord because the bitterness caused in Bangladesh by an earlier Indian river project has yet to be erased. Fresh in the smaller neighbor's memory is the very unpleasant experience of the Farakka project.
The Farakka Barrage, completed in 1975 over the Ganga (a major river system shared by the two countries), led to a fierce controversy that continued for years. Built with the stated aim of diverting the Ganga into the Hooghly River of India's State of West Bengal during the dry season (January to June) in order to flush out silt, the dam came to be opposed for denying water to Bangladesh.
Unbiased accounts have largely corroborated the complaint. According to one finding, the water diversion caused this extremely poor country annual losses of over $4 billion. According to another, in some affected areas of Bangladesh, villagers had to "dig wells as deep as 200 feet to obtain drinking water."
In a recent article titled "From Farakka to Tipaimukh - the Dams that Kill," Bangladeshi human rights activist Habib Siddiqui, no friend of the BNP, recalled the history of the Farakka Barrage that should fill no Indian hearts with pride.
Siddiqui notes that Far?kka was the foremost subject on the agenda of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) from the birth of Bangladesh to early 1975, when the joint body discussed it 90 times. In April 1975, Dhaka agreed to a 41-day trial operation of the barrage on the condition that Bangladesh was assured of a water supply of 40,000 cusecs during the dry season. What followed, in his own words, was this: "Unfortunately, soon after (Father of Bangladesh) Sheikh Mujib's (Mujibur Rahman's) assassination in August 15, 1975, taking advantage of the political change in Bangladesh, India violated the agreement ... by cheating and diverting the full capacity of 40,000 cusecs unilaterally."
The issue went to the UN General Assembly. On November 5, 1977, an agreement was signed, assuring 34,500 cusecs for Bangladesh. The five-year treaty expired in 1982 and, after many shorter extensions, lapsed in 1989.
Siddiqui points out: "The JRC statistics shows very clearly that Bangladesh did not get her due share during all those years (1977-91). There was no improvement of the situation during the first Khaleda Zia Administration (1991-96) with average water share reduced to 10,000 to 12,000 cusecs ..."
Then, Hasina replaced Khaleda as the elected prime minister. She visited India and signed a treaty with her then counterpart Deve Gowda in December 1996. "The treaty addressed the heart of the conflict: water allocation (35,000 cusecs) during the five months of the dry season (January-May). During the rest of the year, there is sufficient water that India can operate the Farakka diversion without creating problems for Bangladesh."
According to Siddqui, however, India did not keep "her side of the bargain." He cites JRC figures again in support of his statement.
This record, as Siddiqui more than suggests, raises eminently warranted misgivings about the Tipaimukh project, for which the foundation stone was laid in December 2006..
As for the environmental dimension to the debate, several experts agree that the Farakka Barrage raised salinity levels, contaminated fisheries and posed a threat to water quality and public health in Bangladesh. According to some, the lower levels of soil moisture along with increased salinity also led to desertification. A study of 1997 estimated that it would take 50 to 60 years to repair the environmental damage with extensive international assistance.
India's West Bengal has not been spared the damage, say some experts. The South Asian Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), in its report of November 1999 to the World Commission on Dams, is quoted as saying: "(The Farakka project) has resulted in massive devastation in Malda on its upstream and Murshidabad on its downstream in West Bengal. Huge sedimentation, increasing flood intensity and increasing tendency of bank failure are some of its impacts. Erosion has swept away large areas of these two districts causing large-scale population displacement ..."
The Tipaimuk project threaten similar consequences as well, say environmentalists. Objections to the project on this score have already been voiced in Manipur.
New Delhi's response to the protests has been to deny any ground for the grave apprehensions voiced about the project. The Hasina government, for its part, has promised the opposition that an all-party delegation will be sent to the site for an on-the-spot study of the project.
Siddiqui, however, speaks for many Bangladeshis. including supporters of the Hasina regime, when he wonders: "Given India's long history of dishonoring her agreements on Farakka with Bangladesh, can she be trusted for keeping any new promise? Are the UN and/or the ICJ (International Court of Justice) only options Bangladesh has to redress her grievances?"
It must be hoped that the option of bilateral discussions is preferred and that these are carried to a conclusion acceptable to common Bangladeshis. India's far right and Bangladesh's fundamentalists are waiting in the wings to take advantage of a failure of such efforts.
Ever since India's general election, ending in the rout of the far right, international and regional attention has been focused on the country's relations with Pakistan and the prospects of their improvement. Unnoticed, meanwhile, is the ongoing damage threatened by India's proposed hydroelectric dam to its relations with Bangladesh, which an earlier ballot had promised to boost.
In the Bangladesh general election of December 2008, the Awami League (AL) of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed won a landslide victory despite attempts to pin the pro-India tag on her by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia and her fundamentalist ally Jamaat-e-Islami (Jei). India seemed to have disappeared from the Bangladeshi political debate for some time, with the proposal for war crime trials threatening only to put Pakistan in the dock again.
India, however, figures in unflattering slogans at public rallies and street demonstrations staged over the past weeks. These are protests against the proposed dam, which seem as inimical to both the economy and environment of Bangladesh. The project is also resented as a display of big-brotherly disdain by India for the sensibilities of its eastern neighbor.
The BNP, with the support of almost all non-AL parties, has threatened to move the United Nations over the Tipaimukh project. The dam is being built across the Barak river on the border of India's northeastern States of Manipur and Mizoram, just 100 kilometers away from Bangladesh. The Barak becomes Meghna in Bangladesh, which the dam will reduce to the status of a lower riparian state.
Originally designed only to contain floods in the lower Barak Valley, the revised project aims to meet the power needs of India's rebellious northeast with an installed generating capacity of 1,500 megawatts. The dam is expected to submerge permanently an area of 275.50 square kilometers.
The protests can strike a popular chord because the bitterness caused in Bangladesh by an earlier Indian river project has yet to be erased. Fresh in the smaller neighbor's memory is the very unpleasant experience of the Farakka project.
The Farakka Barrage, completed in 1975 over the Ganga (a major river system shared by the two countries), led to a fierce controversy that continued for years. Built with the stated aim of diverting the Ganga into the Hooghly River of India's State of West Bengal during the dry season (January to June) in order to flush out silt, the dam came to be opposed for denying water to Bangladesh.
Unbiased accounts have largely corroborated the complaint. According to one finding, the water diversion caused this extremely poor country annual losses of over $4 billion. According to another, in some affected areas of Bangladesh, villagers had to "dig wells as deep as 200 feet to obtain drinking water."
In a recent article titled "From Farakka to Tipaimukh - the Dams that Kill," Bangladeshi human rights activist Habib Siddiqui, no friend of the BNP, recalled the history of the Farakka Barrage that should fill no Indian hearts with pride.
Siddiqui notes that Far?kka was the foremost subject on the agenda of the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) from the birth of Bangladesh to early 1975, when the joint body discussed it 90 times. In April 1975, Dhaka agreed to a 41-day trial operation of the barrage on the condition that Bangladesh was assured of a water supply of 40,000 cusecs during the dry season. What followed, in his own words, was this: "Unfortunately, soon after (Father of Bangladesh) Sheikh Mujib's (Mujibur Rahman's) assassination in August 15, 1975, taking advantage of the political change in Bangladesh, India violated the agreement ... by cheating and diverting the full capacity of 40,000 cusecs unilaterally."
The issue went to the UN General Assembly. On November 5, 1977, an agreement was signed, assuring 34,500 cusecs for Bangladesh. The five-year treaty expired in 1982 and, after many shorter extensions, lapsed in 1989.
Siddiqui points out: "The JRC statistics shows very clearly that Bangladesh did not get her due share during all those years (1977-91). There was no improvement of the situation during the first Khaleda Zia Administration (1991-96) with average water share reduced to 10,000 to 12,000 cusecs ..."
Then, Hasina replaced Khaleda as the elected prime minister. She visited India and signed a treaty with her then counterpart Deve Gowda in December 1996. "The treaty addressed the heart of the conflict: water allocation (35,000 cusecs) during the five months of the dry season (January-May). During the rest of the year, there is sufficient water that India can operate the Farakka diversion without creating problems for Bangladesh."
According to Siddqui, however, India did not keep "her side of the bargain." He cites JRC figures again in support of his statement.
This record, as Siddiqui more than suggests, raises eminently warranted misgivings about the Tipaimukh project, for which the foundation stone was laid in December 2006..
As for the environmental dimension to the debate, several experts agree that the Farakka Barrage raised salinity levels, contaminated fisheries and posed a threat to water quality and public health in Bangladesh. According to some, the lower levels of soil moisture along with increased salinity also led to desertification. A study of 1997 estimated that it would take 50 to 60 years to repair the environmental damage with extensive international assistance.
India's West Bengal has not been spared the damage, say some experts. The South Asian Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), in its report of November 1999 to the World Commission on Dams, is quoted as saying: "(The Farakka project) has resulted in massive devastation in Malda on its upstream and Murshidabad on its downstream in West Bengal. Huge sedimentation, increasing flood intensity and increasing tendency of bank failure are some of its impacts. Erosion has swept away large areas of these two districts causing large-scale population displacement ..."
The Tipaimuk project threaten similar consequences as well, say environmentalists. Objections to the project on this score have already been voiced in Manipur.
New Delhi's response to the protests has been to deny any ground for the grave apprehensions voiced about the project. The Hasina government, for its part, has promised the opposition that an all-party delegation will be sent to the site for an on-the-spot study of the project.
Siddiqui, however, speaks for many Bangladeshis. including supporters of the Hasina regime, when he wonders: "Given India's long history of dishonoring her agreements on Farakka with Bangladesh, can she be trusted for keeping any new promise? Are the UN and/or the ICJ (International Court of Justice) only options Bangladesh has to redress her grievances?"
It must be hoped that the option of bilateral discussions is preferred and that these are carried to a conclusion acceptable to common Bangladeshis. India's far right and Bangladesh's fundamentalists are waiting in the wings to take advantage of a failure of such efforts.
Tipaimukh Dam : State lobbies Delhi
The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 17 2009
The State Government has written to the Ministry of Power to exercise its influence over Mizoram Government for giving forest clearance so that the construction work of the proposed 1500 megawatt capacity Multipurpose Power Project may be started soon.
According to an official source, although the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment has given the environmental clearance for the project, commencement of construction work has been delayed as the Mizoram Government has not given the forest clearance.
Consequently, the State Government has written to the Ministry of Power to exert influence on Mizoram Government in this regard.
The Ministry of Power is likely to do the needful in this regard very soon, the source conveyed, adding that as of now no construction work could be started.
As to the report that an official team from Bangladesh would be visiting Mizoram in connection with the project, the source maintained that it is not in the knowlege of the State Government.
It may be noted here the Ministry has already agreed on taking up the project as a joint venture with Manipur contributing only 5 percent of the project cost.
The Action Committee Against Tipaimukh Dam has been opposing the proposed dam in Manipur.
Imphal, June 17 2009
The State Government has written to the Ministry of Power to exercise its influence over Mizoram Government for giving forest clearance so that the construction work of the proposed 1500 megawatt capacity Multipurpose Power Project may be started soon.
According to an official source, although the Union Ministry of Forest and Environment has given the environmental clearance for the project, commencement of construction work has been delayed as the Mizoram Government has not given the forest clearance.
Consequently, the State Government has written to the Ministry of Power to exert influence on Mizoram Government in this regard.
The Ministry of Power is likely to do the needful in this regard very soon, the source conveyed, adding that as of now no construction work could be started.
As to the report that an official team from Bangladesh would be visiting Mizoram in connection with the project, the source maintained that it is not in the knowlege of the State Government.
It may be noted here the Ministry has already agreed on taking up the project as a joint venture with Manipur contributing only 5 percent of the project cost.
The Action Committee Against Tipaimukh Dam has been opposing the proposed dam in Manipur.
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