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Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday that her government would form an all-party committee to report on the pros and cons of the proposed Tipaimukh barrage in India before taking a decision on the disputed project.
The prime minister told Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarti, about the plan for the all-party committee when Chakravarti visited her, her press secretary told reporters after the meeting.
Opposition party Jamaat-e-Islami suggested a week ago that the government form an all-party panel to sit in talks with India.
Tipaimukh is located 500 metres downstream from the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers and lies on the south-western corner of the Indian state of Manipur.
Opposition parties, from BNP and its allies to left parties, as well as environmentalists have been voicing their concern about the construction of Tipaimikh barrage saying that if the dam is built, the existence of the Surma-Kushiara rivers in Bangladesh would be at stake.
Hasina also conveyed her congratulations, in Wednesday's meeting with Chakravarti, to Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh on beginning his second five-year term.
"Poverty is the main problem of this region. We will have focus on regional cooperation to address this problem," press secretary Abul Kalam Azam quoted Hasina as saying.
The two also discussed bilateral issues and hoped for better future relationship between the two countries, said Azad.
Chakravarty expressed his profound sorrow and condolence for the death of Dr MA Wazed Miah, the prime minister's husband earlier this month.
He also informed her about the recent Indian election.
The day before, commerce minister Faruq Khan told reporters the government would send an expert and parliamentary team within days to visit the proposed dam site at Tipaimukh.
They will report what was happening there and how much benefit Bangladesh stands to gain from the project, Khan added.
Earlier this month, the government was urged by Islamist and Left parties to immediately engage in dialogue with India to halt the construction of the dam, after the Indian high commissioner conceded for the first time that it was being built, as part of the proposed Tipaimukh hydropower project, over the cross-boundary river Barak.
But, he said, it would not harm Bangladesh. Chakravarti said the Tipaimukh hydropower project was not like the Farakka irrigation project. The water at Tipaimukh would be diverted to produce hydroelectricity but it would thereafter be released, he said.
There are fears, however, that the dam will dry up the Meghna river in the greater Sylhet region. Environmental groups in Bangladesh have held many talks on the adverse impact of the proposed dam. They say it would dry up the river and the water bodies in the downstream, leaving millions jobless and upsetting the ecological balance.
Water resources minister Ramesh Chandra Sen has said, "If any dam is built there, Bangladesh will be harmed and, in that case, will protest."
Source: bdnews24.com
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