Six members of the 10-strong parliamentary delegation will stay back in New Delhi one more day after the team failed for a second day on Sunday to visit the proposed Tipaimukh dam site, in India's northeast Manipur state.

Md Hasanuzzaman, personal secretary to delegation head Abdur Razzak, told bdnews24.com, "The Bangladesh high commission in New Delhi informed me that the Dhaka delegation is staying in the Indian capital for another day to speak to relevant government officials."

The team had earlier failed to visit the site on Friday too, amid heavy rainfall, and returned to the Assam capital of Guwahati, where they were staying after meeting with the Indian government in the Indian capital earlier in the week.

Environmental pressure groups in Bangladesh, as well as India, have been voicing strong concern over the potential impact in downstream areas of the Indian dam over the Barak River.

The Bangladesh delegation left Dhaka on July 29 to meet Indian ministers and visit the site of the planned dam over the Barak, which enters into Bangladesh as the Surma and Kushiara rivers.

The two rivers are lifeline for hundreds of water bodies in the greater Sylhet region of Bangladesh.

The delegation's aim, Razzak told bdnews24.com before leaving for India, was to obtain India's firm word that the dam would not be used for irrigation purposes that could divert precious water resources from Bangladesh.

India has already said the dam would not withhold water as it is part of a power generation project and not intended for irrigation purposes, but the people of Bangladesh, as well as Manipur state, remain concerned over the contentious project.

The members of the parliamentary team include Awami League MPs Abdur Rahman, ABM Anwarul Haq and Jahir Hossain, Jatiya Party member of parliament ABM Ruhul Amin Hawlader and independent MP Fazlul Azim.

It also has two experts—BUET professor Monwar Hossain and Sajjad Hossain of the Bangladesh-India Joint Rivers Commission.

The other two members are water resources secretary Waheduzzaman and foreign ministry director general Emran Ahmed.

Jamaat-e-Islami MP Hamidur Rahman Azad did not join the delegation at the last moment as he fell ill.

Bangladesh's main opposition BNP failed to name two members for the team, even though the party has been among the loudest critics of the dam project in recent months.

Source: bdnews24.com

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