No Int’l law can stop Tipaimukh Dam: Pinak says at friendship society meet

Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty yesterday said his country had consulted with Bangladesh on the construction of the Tipaimukh Dam.
There has been a lot of agitation of the issue on Tipaimukh Dam. I reiterate that it is a hydro-electric multi-purpose project to produce electricity. There is no international law that could stop India from implementing the Tipaimukh Dam,” he said at a seminar on ‘South Asian Connectivity’ organised by Bangladesh-India Friendship Society at Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni was present as chief guest at the seminar which was presided over by Prof AK Azad Chowdhury.
Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) presented the key note paper.
It was also addressed, among others, by Prof Amena Mohsin and Syed Margub Morshed, former secretary, Prof Abul Barakat and Dr M Rahmatullah, Adviser, Planning Commission.
The High Commissioner of India said it was totally false and lie that India has not consulted with Bangladesh.
Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission at its 1972 and 1978 meetings recognised the construction of a storage dam on the river Barak that entered Bangladesh and Kushiara and Surma rivers, he noted.
He said that there is no international treaty. There is a UN convention on the non-navigation and uses of water resources made in the late 1909s. The convention that was approved and ratified by 17 countries so far needed signing and ratification by 35 countries to be made into an international law, he added.
Brushing aside the allegations that India is depriving Bangladesh from her due share of the Ganges waters Pinak termed it as an empty political slogan.
Criticising the comments made by people in Bangladesh that Tipaimukh Dam on the river Barak would cause environmental disasters in the greater Sylhet region he said it was nothing but to gain political mileage.
It is unfortunate that there are some so-called water experts in Bangladesh who make comments on the issue, he mentioned.
The High Commissioner of India said both Bangladesh and India were getting due share of waters as per the Ganges water treaty signed by the previous Awami League Government in 1996.
Some people in the country are to deprive political mileage over the water sharing of the common rivers, he mentioned.
He said there were voices for the annulment of the treaty during the elections in Bangladesh in 2001 and after the elections those voices were not heard any more.
We expected that maybe the treaty would be annulled or at least reviewed. But it did not happen. They realised that the treaty was good for both sides, he mentioned
The High Commissioner admitted that the flow of Ganges shrunk due to climate change, increase of population and huge number of irrigation projects along the river.
Pinak said India phobia have become an instrument for deriving political mileage for a particular section.
Dr Dipu Moni said better connectivity is necessary for the economic and social development in South Asia.
“Bangladesh can be a bridge between South and South East Asia due her geographic location,” he said.

Courtesy of The New Nation