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Bilateral talks can resolve dam row: Hasina

DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said the issue of the Tipaimukh dam project will be resolved through bilateral discussions with India.

Ms. Hasina, whose government is only six months old, said she believed in a negotiated settlement of all problems.

“We have signed the historic Ganges water treaty, ensuring a fair share of the river’s water. We will be able to resolve the Tipaimukh issue,” she told parliament on Monday, while speaking on the proposed budget.

Referring to the cardinal principle of Bangladesh’s foreign policy, she said her government wanted to move forward in line with it.

Ms. Hasina accused the main Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of adopting double standards. “I would have been happy if I had found their loud voice against the Tipaimukh dam when they were in power,” she said.

The Prime Minister said a team comprising members of the parliamentary standing committee on the Water Resources Ministry would visit the dam site. The BNP did not have representation in the committee.

“However, I asked the chairman of the parliamentary standing committee to include names of BNP lawmakers if they want. But they did not propose any name,” she said.

Ms. Hasina accused the BNP, led by the former Premier, Begum Khaleda Zia, of making an issue of the dam project. “Our Opposition party is now aware of the Tipaimukh dam, but they were silent when the project was launched,” she said.

The construction of the dam on the Borak River in Manipur became an issue that triggered widespread protest, mainly from the BNP and the Jamaat-e-Islami.

Apart from the Opposition parties, which are making it a major political issue, a section of experts, ruling party lawmakers and several Ministers have also raised their voices against the project.

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