DHAKA: India has said that it could resolve the longstanding Teesta river water sharing issue with Bangladesh by September when Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to visit the country.
“I do sincerely hope, in the next few months we will be able to resolve it,” External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters at end of his two-day Bangladesh tour for the second Joint Consultative Commission meeting with his counterpart Dipu Moni.
Khurshid said he expected India could resolve the issue of water sharing in common Teesta River with Bangladesh by September when Bangladesh Hasina is set to visit India.
Khurshid said a process was underway to resolve quickly the pending issue, engaging West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banarjee, who had opposed the inking of the deal fearing it will lead to water shortage in her state.
Earlier, Hasina had hoped that India would take a “liberal view” to resolve the Teesta river water sharing issue.
“We hope India will take a liberal view to resolve the problem” and initiate measures to sign the agreement, Hasina said, when Khurshid called on her.
Khurshid reiterated that the upcoming budget session of the Indian parliament was expected to ratify an additional protocol for the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), amending the constitution to remove an irritant in bilateral ties.
“One major milestone will be achieved when it would be ratified,” Khurshid said, as his visit came three days after the Indian cabinet approved draft of the LBA for parliamentary ratification through constitutional amendment.
The bill will facilitate the implementation of the LBA signed in 1974 while its protocol was inked in 2011.
In a major step forward to resolve the land boundary issue, India and Bangladesh exchanged maps of demarcated stretches.
The symbolic exchange of strip maps, carried out in accordance with the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) of 1974, pertain to adverse possessions and undemarcated stretches.
The crucial land boundary issue involves exchange of land in 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladeshi enclaves to India.
Asked if the existing bilateral security cooperation against the use of Bangladesh territories by Indian separatists could be affected in case of change of governments in the countries as the both await general elections next year, Khurshid answered in the negative.
-PTI
