New Delhi reassures Dhaka over Teesta water-sharing deal

India has reassured Bangladesh that it is taking all necessary steps to clear the long-pending Teesta water-sharing agreement.

“We are trying to take all stakeholders on board so that it (agreement) does not face any hurdles,” said a government official quoting Indian Water Resource Minister Uma Bharati on Monday.
 
Bharati said this while interacting with her Bangladesh counterpart Anisul Islam Mahmud in New Delhi.
 
Both the ministers have discussed in length the latest position of Teesta water-sharing agreement and other relevant issues.
 
Bharati is believed to have told Mahmud that her government was in constant touch with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
 
“We will definitely take all parties into consideration before taking any decision,” Bharati is said to have told Mahmud.
 
The Bangladesh minister invited her to the next round of Joint River Commission meeting slated to be held in Dhaka.
 
Earlier in the day, he addressed the Water Innovation Summit 2015, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries and the Water Institute of India in New Delhi.
 
There, he said for an overall growth of the region, there must be a common vision of sharing resources.
 

“There should be more cooperation between regional countries and without a shared vision development is not possible,” said Mahmud.

Giving an indication that India should reciprocate Bangladesh’s good gesture, Mahmud said, “India’s security is safeguarded by a prosperous Bangladesh…and now we want the same from India.

“In fact, the present government in Bangladesh has been able to remove the trust deficit on security between India and Bangladesh,” he said.

Sharing of Teesta water is a long pending demand raised by Dhaka, which was mainly opposed by Mamata Banerjee.

In 2011, Banerjee, then an ally of the Congress-led UPA government, backed out from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Bangladesh visit, opposing the treaty between the two countries, following which it was shelved.

Coming down from the Himalayas in Sikkim, the Teesta river runs through the Indian state of West Bengal before reaching Bangladesh.