Foreign Secy to visit Dhaka to finalise Hasina's India tour

Following repetitive speculations on the postponement of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided to send Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar to Dhaka to finalise the proposed visit. Jaishankar will be visiting Dhaka on February 23 for a day, said sources.

According to the plan, Jaishankar will initially meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to convey Modi's special message to her. He will be holding meetings with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque.

The principal issue of sharing the water of river Teesta has been pending for long. Also, after PM Modi agreed to conduct a study on the issue, Bangladesh is keen to have an agreement on allowing them to build a barrage on river Ganges. But so far, India has not given any concrete proposal to the West Bengal government.

Sources said, "After the on-going state Assembly polls, senior interlocutor will start parleys with the state government. During Modi's visit, a joint statement which had the mention of the Ganga barrage project was signed. Modi had agreed to get the matter examined by Indian agencies but no there has been no progress for the last two years."

Meanwhile, Bangladesh has offered a new proposal to have a joint river Delta management plan which is currently being studied in the Water Resource Ministry. Also, the nation wants to build a barrage at Pangsaha of Rajbari on Padma River.

However, the Bengal government considers the creation of water storage for this barrage might lead to unwanted flood during the lean period. The proposed barrage is 82 km away from Bengal's Karimpur border. Following the creation of the barrage, there might be more erosion in the bank of Maldaha and Murshidabad. Counting on the ill-effects of the plan, the Bengal government has repeatedly asked the Central to release money for rehabilitation and repairing of the embankments of the river but always received deaf ears.