Mamata's eyes on Farakka
After blocking the Teesta water-sharing treaty, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee now says Bangladesh is getting more Ganges water through the Farakka barrage than stipulated in the agreement.
“This situation has been ongoing for the last three months,” she told an administrative meeting in Berhampur of Mushidabad district on Wednesday.
The chief minister would write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi informing him about her strong stance on Farakka. The draft of the letter has already been prepared, said sources at the West Bengal state secretariat.
Mamata said a section of government officials in the Centre was behind giving more Ganges water to Bangladesh. She claimed that she became sure of the situation after seeing some CCTV footage of the barrage.
She was irked when some officials of the irrigation department in the district said they looked after the barrage, said meeting sources.
C Sudhakar, superintendent of police in Murshidabad, said the CCTVs were not working. The chief minister said there must be a subversion of the technology.
Contacted, General Manager of Farakka barrage Saumitra Kumar Haldar said there is no logic behind the allegation that Bangladesh is getting more water than its share of the Ganges water. Footage of CCTVs cannot give the measure of water flow at Farakka point, he added.
As per the Ganges Water Sharing Agreement, 1996, Bangladesh and India get a fixed supply of water from January 1 to May 31 each year. The water supply for the rest of the year depends on the storage capacity of the dam and the water flow level there.
Mamata made headlines on September 7 in 2011 by opting out of the delegation led by then Indian premier Manmohan Singh to Dhaka at the last minute due to her opposition to the Teesta water-sharing deal. As a result, the Teesta agreement could not be signed then.
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