Mamata angry over water sharing with Bangladesh, complains Modi rejected
Several sources in the central government of India have said that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegation that West Bengal avoided the agreement between Bangladesh and New Delhi on the renewal of the Farakka Agreement and the Teesta water sharing agreement is not true.
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently visited New Delhi. During his visit, an agreement was reached between Dhaka and Delhi on the renewal of the Farakka agreement with the central government of India and the Teesta water distribution agreement. However, Mamata Banerjee alleged that New Delhi has compromised with Dhaka, ignoring the West Bengal state government, one of the most important parties in these two inter-state issues. Mamata Banerjee also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 24 regarding this.
In the letter, he said that although he has love for Bangladesh, he will not accept the renewal of the Teesta Agreement and the Ganga Water Distribution Agreement.
Meanwhile, Indian news agency PTI reported that a committee was formed on July 24, 2023 for internal review of the Ganga water sharing agreement. The West Bengal Government was requested to send a representative there. On August 25, 2023, the West Bengal government informed the Center that it has nominated the Chief Engineer of the Irrigation and Waterways Department as its representative in the committee.
On April 5, 2024, the Joint Secretary of the West Bengal Government’s Irrigation and Waterways Department informed the Center about the amount of money they would need for the downstream of Farakka Dam in the next 30 years.
In 1996, the Ganges Water Sharing Agreement was signed between Bangladesh and India. It will expire in 2026. In this situation, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited India last week. There, he discussed the renewal of the Ganga water distribution agreement in a meeting with Narendra Modi. After that, Mamata complained that efforts are being made to renew the Ganga agreement without them.
The Chief Minister of West Bengal has also written to Modi objecting to the negotiation of water sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh. Mentioning the close relationship between Kolkata and Dhaka in the letter, he said, “Such one-sided discussion without discussion and opinion with the state government is not acceptable and desirable.”
Meanwhile, the sources of news agency ANI also say that the allegations of the West Bengal government are not true. The West Bengal government has falsely claimed it was not consulted in the internal review of the India-Bangladesh agreement on Ganga water sharing, the source said on Monday.
According to Indian media reports, Mamata Banerjee’s decision to send a technical team to Bangladesh to discuss the agreement on the Teesta water issue and the distribution of Teesta river water has also angered Mamata Banerjee. The Mamata government of West Bengal has already expressed concern about Teesta water distribution.
It is to be noted that although the Teesta Agreement was supposed to be signed during the then Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh in 2011, it was not done due to the objection of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the last moment. However, the Prime Minister of India said at that time that they will not take any action that would have an adverse effect.
However, since 2011, India has been unilaterally withdrawing Teesta water. Even the West Bengal government took the initiative to dig two more canals upstream last year to remove the water without following the rules.
This time, there are indications that Mamata can prevent trouble in the case of renewing the Ganga water distribution agreement by keeping the dispute with the central government and the local politics of West Bengal in front, according to the Indian media reports.
Source: India TV
