New Delhi, Oct 22 – Chief minister of the Indian state of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee on Saturday blamed 'some people' for creating 'confusion' on the issue of sharing of water of Teesta river between Bangladesh and India.
She also said India maintained best relations with Bangladesh and the governments of the two neighbours would work together.
Banerjee was talking to journalists on the sidelines of the National Development Council meet in New Delhi. This is the first time she spoke to journalists in New Delhi on the issue of Bangladesh-India relation after opting out of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's entourage to Dhaka last month, purportedly due to her differences with India's central government on the proposed deal on Teesta.
"Some people created confusion on (Teesta water issue)... we maintained the best relations with Bangladesh and I hope India and Bangladesh will work together," she said.
New Delhi and Dhaka had since long been negotiating a deal on Teesta and the two countries were about to sign an interim agreement during Singh's visit to Bangladesh on Sep 6 and 7. But Banerjee's decision not to accompany Singh to Dhaka made public her differences with India's central government on the issue of Teesta, forcing New Delhi to take it off the table.
Banerjee is understood to have conveyed to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in New Delhi that she would not endorse a deal that would hurt the interests of the people of West Bengal, which is largely dependent on the common river for power generation and irrigation of agricultural land.
Banerjee on Saturday also said that New Delhi had not informed her government about Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to Dahagram and Angarpota through Indian territory in Tin Bigha corridor on Oct 19.
The West Bengal chief minister, however, also made it clear that she had no difference with the central government of India on the issue of providing round-the-clock access to the people of Bangladesh through the Tin Bigha corridor to Dahagram and Angarpota.
"There is no issue over Tin Bigha with our government. I am not informed about the Tin Bigha issue. It is between India and Bangladesh governments," she said.
Neither Banerjee nor any high-level representative of her government was present in Tin Bigha to receive Hasina on Oct 19. This fuelled speculation about West Bengal government being unhappy over New Delhi's decision to grant people of Bangladesh 24-hour access to Dahagram and Angarpota through Tin Bigha.
Indian government's ministry of external affairs, on the other hand, issued a statement claiming that the state government of West Bengal had been kept informed about Bangladesh prime minister's visit through Tin Bigha.
"It is also understood that the government of West Bengal was kept fully advised about the programme of the distinguished visitor (Hasina) as soon as intimation on this was received from the government of Bangladesh. The ministry of home affairs had also been in touch with concerned authorities in the government of West Bengal," official spokesperson of the Indian government's MEA said.
India's health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and minister of state for home affairs Jitendra Singh had received Hasina in Tin Bigha on Oct 19. Though India's home minister and senior leader of the ruling Congress party P Chidambaram was supposed to receive her, he could not go to Tin Bigha due to a family exigency.
A section of Indian media reported that Dhaka was not happy with the absence of Chidambaram or any other high-profile minister of the central government of India in Tin Bigha October 19 and had conveyed its displeasure to Delhi.
But New Delhi issued a clarification on Saturday.
The official spokesperson of the Indian government's Ministry of External Affairs Vishnu Prakash said that Chidambaram was indeed due to receive Hasina on her arrival at Tin Bigha. But, on the eve of the event, Chidambaram's 91-year-old mother suffered a fall and fractured her hip for which surgery was scheduled on Oct 19 itself.
"Due to the family emergency, Home minister had to rush to Chennai, to be by his mother's side," said Prakash.
He said that Singh had then desired that Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had a long association with Bangladesh, should receive Hasina.
"India has the highest regard and affection for prime minister Sheikh Hasina and the people of Bangladesh, and considers it an honour that she decided to pay a personal visit to Bangladesh territory in Angarpota and Dahagram through the Tin Bigha Corridor," the statement issued by Indian government's Ministry of External Affairs said.
"She (Hasina) was most gracious in her appreciation of India's gesture to make available round-the-clock access to Dahagram and Angarpota, so soon after the landmark visit of the prime minister of India to Dhaka in Sep."
News from:bdnews24.com
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