At least seven pacts likely as Hasina arrives in Delhi

Agreements covering diverse areas such as water sharing, connectivity and trade will be sealed following official-level talks

India and Bangladesh are expected to sign at least seven agreements on Tuesday covering diverse areas such as water sharing, connectivity and trade, The Hindu has learnt. The agreements will be sealed following official-level talks that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will hold with her Indian counterpart Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Ms. Hasina arrived here on Monday afternoon and was welcomed by Indian High Commissioner to Dhaka Vikram Doraiswamy and Minister of State for Railways and Textiles Darshana Jardosh. 

Among the first senior representatives to meet the visiting dignitary was External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar who called on her and said, “The warmth and frequency of our leadership-level contacts is a testimony to our close neighbourly partnership.” Starting the visit, Ms. Hasina prayed at the shrine of the Sufi saint Nizamuddin here in the afternoon and later, in the evening, she met with senior diplomats, journalists and professionals at an interaction organised by the Bangladesh High Commission. Minister of Surface Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi and Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways Vijay Kumar Singh accompanied Ms. Hasina at the event. 

“Bangladesh is now considered as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The proportion of our population living below the poverty line has fallen from 31% to nearly 20.5%,” said High Commissioner Mohammed Imran welcoming the Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India. 

Among the agreements that are being planned for Tuesday is the one on the Kushiyara river near Assam. The Joint River Commission Meeting on August 25 had finalised the text of the Kushiyara river agreement. It also had agreed to expand cooperation to areas like reduction of pollution in the cross-border rivers. India has been sharing real-time flood data with Bangladesh, the period of which has now been further extended. This initiative is aimed at assisting Bangladesh deal with the threat of annual floods. 

A major focus of the bilateral ties is on the power sector. Bangladesh at present is importing 1160 MW of power from India and this is expected to go up in the coming period. It is understood that both sides will review the status of power projects that are currently being developed. The construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline that will export diesel from Siliguri to Parbatipur is likely to be completed soon. 

The Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh should be declared as a “region of peace”, a coalition of Chakma community organisations has said. The call for the zone of peace in the Chittagong hills came a little after Ms. Hasina arrived in Delhi.

“Though the Chittagong Hill Tracts [CHT] Accord was signed on December 2, 1997, key provisions of the accord, especially handing over of law and order and supervision of the three Hill District Councils of Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Rangamati to the CHT Regional Council, withdrawal of the Bangladesh Army camps established during the armed conflicts into the cantonments within the CHT, remain unimplemented 25 years after signing of the accord,” said Rashik Mohan Chakma, president of Chakma National Council of India (CNCI), Mizoram, and former MLA of Mizoram in a statement.