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Bangladesh for dialogue to resolve Tipaimukh dam issue

DHAKA: As major Opposition parties protested against the hydroelectric project in Manipur, the country’s Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said on Saturday that if the Tipaimukh dam threatened Bangladesh’s interests, the issue would be resolved through discussions with India.

She told a news agency that New Delhi had assured Dhaka that it would in no way act to harm Bangladesh.

The Sheikh Hasina government is planning to send an all-party parliamentary delegation to the dam site to assess the environmental fallout for Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has appealed to the international community to oppose the dam, saying it is a ‘death trap’ for Bangladesh. The major Opposition party urged the government “to protest to New Delhi in the strongest possible terms” against the project.

BNP secretary general Khandaker Delwar Hossain told a press conference that the Sheikh Hasina government should protest against the Indian move immediately, “or BNP along with the people will be forced to take whatever action is necessary to stop it.”

The former Water Resources Minister and BNP vice-president Hafizuddin Ahmed, in a statement, said all parties except the ruling Awami League had protested against the dam.

Mr. Ahmed claimed that the BNP government during its first term, 1991-96, had protested against the dam twice. He criticised India for not responding positively. New Delhi was not helpful despite efforts to resolve the issue through the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC), he alleged.

The dam was an obvious breach of the 9th article of the Farakka accord signed in 1966, and international law, he said.

Corrections and Clarifications

The Farakka agreement was signed in 1996. The last paragraph of a report "Bangladesh for dialogue to resolve Tipaimukh dam issue" (June 14, 2009) gave the year as 1966.

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