By IANS,
Kolkata : Iterating that river water sharing was “always a contentious issue”, former Central Ground Water Board member S.P. Sinha Ray Wednesday said the Teesta river water sharing accord with Bangladesh would take time.
“River water sharing in the country has always been a contentious issue, more so because in most of the cases, the parties are not fully aware about their rights and share of the river. Since irrigation consumes most of the water, governments often hesitate to quantify the rights,” Ray said at a programme here.
“The Teesta agreement still has some time to go, because neither Sikkim nor West Bengal is fully aware of their rights over the river. Unless these rights are quantified and measured, how can the agreement with Bangladesh be concluded?” asked Ray.
The Teesta is considered to be the lifeline of Sikkim and forms the border with West Bengal before joining the Brahmaputra as a tributary in Bangladesh.
Speaking at “Water Exposition 2012” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), Ray urged all state governments and the centre to make efforts demarcating shares of river water for the respective stakeholders.
River expert Kalyan Rudra, who heads the one-man commission set up by the Mamata Banerjee government to find an acceptable solution to the Teesta issue, also conceded that the conclusion of the treaty was still some time away.
“I met Banerjee three months back and she told me to continue calibrating the data and figures for some more time as there were some discrepancies in the data provided by the Central Water Commission,” Rudra told IANS.
“The conclusion of the agreement depends solely on the volitions of the respective governments of India and Bangladesh,” he said.
“I have done the requisite studies and can finalise my report whenever I am asked, provided I am informed at least three weeks earlier,” Rudra said.
In September last year, Banerjee pulled out of the official delegation when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid visit to Bangladesh over the Teesta water sharing agreement, forcing India to drop it from the agenda.
However, Bangladesh has lately been exuding confidence about the finalisation of the treaty.