India agrees to schedule JRC meeting suiting Bangladesh

India has agreed to time the next Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting suiting Bangladesh’s needs.

JRC is an annual meeting but the last one took place four years ago in New Delhi in 2010.

The meeting is significant for Bangladesh as river-water sharing has been a thorn in its ties with the big neighbour.

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali met the India’s Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation minister Uma Bharti on Friday at her office.

The foreign ministry said the two ministers agreed to hold the next JRC in Bangladesh "at a mutually convenient time".

The foreign minister is in Delhi to attend the third round of the foreign ministers-level Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting on Saturday.

Before that, he met with the President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a number of ministers of the new Indian government.

If held, the JRC would be the 38th meeting after the mechanism was set up in 1972 focusing on bilateral water resources development and management.

Both countries share 54 rivers, but only Ganges water-sharing treaty has been signed, back in 1996.

Bangladesh lies in the downstream of those rivers.

The Teesta water-sharing deal has been scuppered by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Officials say the foreign minister will seek a deadline to settle the issue of sharing waters of the river along with the ratification of the Land Boundary Agreement during the Saturday’s JCC.

In the meeting with water resources minister Bharti, the foreign minister discussed water and related issues.

They also discussed an interim agreement for sharing waters of Teesta and agreed to hold the 3rd meeting of the Sub-group of the JRC on Tipaimukh hydro-electric project at a convenient time.

Bharti reiterated that “India would not implement any project that may have adverse impact on Bangladesh”.

The foreign minister also met India’s minister for finance, defence and corporate affairs Arun Jaitley, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.

He met the Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday evening, just after reaching Delhi.

They acknowledged the “significant progress” made in power sector cooperation over the past five years.

The power minister said India would extend “all out support to Bangladesh to further enhance and accelerate the pace of cooperation in this sector.”

The foreign minister also attended the Lalit Arpan Festival Thursday evening along with the former Speaker of Lok Sabha Meira Kumar.