Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus has said that the interim government will work with India to find ways to resolve differences over the long-pending Teesta water sharing treaty as delaying it for years will not benefit any country.
In an interview to PTI at his official residence in Dhaka, Muhammad Yunus said the water-sharing issue between the two countries should be resolved according to international norms. He stressed that lower riparian countries like Bangladesh have specific rights which they want to retain.
“There will be no use sitting on this issue (water sharing). If I know how much water I will get, even if I am not happy, and sign, it will be better. This issue has to be resolved,” he said.
Responding to a question whether the interim government would make efforts to resolve the issues of the Teesta water sharing treaty soon, he said the new government would work on it.
“Pushing is a big word; that is not what I am saying. We will push it. But we have to sit together and resolve it,” he told PTI.
India and Bangladesh were scheduled to sign an agreement on Teesta water sharing during then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011, but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to support it, citing water shortage in her state.
He said, “This is not a new issue but a very old issue. We have spoken on this issue on several occasions. The discussions started during Pakistan’s rule. We all wanted this treaty to be finalised, even the Indian government was ready for it. However, the state government of West Bengal was not ready for it. We need to resolve it.”
Muhammad Yunus reiterated that lower riparian countries like Bangladesh have specific rights which they wish to retain.
“We have to resolve this issue according to international norms. The lower riparian countries have certain rights and we want those rights,” he said.
His remarks came days after interim government’s water resources adviser Sayeeda Rizwana Hasan told PTI that Dhaka will push for resumption of negotiations with New Delhi on the Teesta water sharing treaty and stressed that the two countries should follow international principles on water sharing between upper riparian and lower riparian countries.
Speaking about the flood situation in Bangladesh and reports from Dhaka blaming India for the floods, Muhammad Yunus said that until the treaty was signed, a humanitarian approach could be adopted to deal with such crises.
“When the Indian High Commissioner came to meet me, I said we can work on better management to control the situation during floods. We don’t need any treaty for this kind of coordination between two countries,” he said. “We can work together and solve this on humanitarian grounds, as it will reduce the suffering of the common people. Such humanitarian measures will really help.”
Flooding caused by monsoon rains in deltaic Bangladesh and upland Indian regions has killed scores of people and left nearly 3 million stranded or affected, posing a major administrative challenge for the newly installed interim government amid political transition.
India has termed as factually incorrect the reports received from Bangladesh that the current flood situation in some parts of the country was caused by opening of dam gates on Gumti River in Tripura.
In New Delhi, the External Affairs Ministry said flooding in rivers shared by the two countries is a “common” problem affecting people on both sides and requires close mutual cooperation to resolve it.
Speaking on the controversial issue of border killings, Muhammad Yunus condemned it and said that killing is not the solution.
The Indian Border Security Force (BSF) has accused Bangladeshi smugglers and infiltrators of crossing the border and attacking Indian forces when challenged.
He has raised the issue with his Bangladeshi counterpart BGB on several occasions. West Bengal shares a total border of 2,217 km with Bangladesh, besides Tripura (856 km), Meghalaya (443 km), Assam (262 km) and Mizoram (318 km) with Bangladesh.
There have been frequent deaths along the Bangladesh-India border due to alleged infiltrators trying to enter India illegally, cross-border firing and cattle smuggling.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)