Mamata to join PM Modi on historic trip

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his  path- breaking two-day visit to Bangladesh starting June 6. “The Chief Minister will go along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh next month. We hope this visit will strengthen relations between the two Bengals (West Bengal and Bangladesh) and also between the two countries,” said Partha Chatterjee, West Bengal Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, in Kolkata.

This will be Banerjee’s second visit to the neighbouring country in less than six months. The Chief Minister, along with a delegation of state government officials and cultural personalities, had visited Bangladesh for three days in February this year. During her visit, Banerjee had eased bottlenecks in many pending agreements between the two nations.

According to sources, Banerjee has paved the way for agreements that the Prime Minister will be signing with the Bangladesh government. Earlier, Banerjee had agreed to the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA), which had been hanging fire for a long time. Asked if Banerjee had given her consent to the Teesta water-sharing treaty, Chatterjee said, “I am not aware of it and I cannot comment on this matter.

However, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh during his visit to Kolkata earlier this week had said that the much-awaited Teesta water-sharing agreement would be inked during the Prime Minister’s visit to Bangladesh. “Both the countries will give their approval to it very soon. We are hopeful that we will get full cooperation from the West Bengal government”, Singh had said at a press conference in Kolkata. 

On the LBA between the two countries, Singh had said “The land boundary issue was stuck for 40 years. Now the decision has been taken.”

Singh had also said that the Kolkata-Agartala bus service via Dhaka would start soon. The trial runs have already been conducted.

Last week, Bangladesh High Commissioner Syed <g data-gr-id="29">Muazzem</g> Ali too had expressed that the Teesta water-sharing pact would be signed during Modi’s visit to Dhaka and had noted that the Indian government had briefed Bangladesh on “internal” discussions the Centre was having with the West Bengal government.