India,Bangla meet on water sharing today

As relations with Bangladesh look up following Sheikh Hasinas return to power last year,the Indo-Bangladesh Joint River Commission (JRC) will meet on Thursday for the first time in over four years. During their meeting,Water Resources Ministers Pawan Kumar Bansal and his Bangladesh counterpart Ramesh Chandra Sen are likely to dwell at length on the sharing of water of the Teesta and other rivers.

Both countries are learnt to have made progress on other issues during the secretary-level meeting in Dhaka early this year and agreed to start anti-erosion works on both sides of the rivers that act as a natural boundary between them at many places. During the secretary-level meeting,both countries reportedly agreed to starting dredging of the Ichhamati river,the flooding of which is attributed to siltation in the river bed.

Dhaka is also learnt to have agreed to allow New Delhi India to start a drinking water project from Subrum town in Tripura from the Feni river. During the meeting both sides are expected to finalise these points along with the sharing of waters of six other rivers the Dharla,Monu,Muhuri,Dudhkumar,Khowai and Gomti.