http://www.newagebd.com/2008/may/07/front.html#21
New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Indian envoy blames water crisis on lack of management
Bdnews24.com . Dhaka
The Indian high commissioner, Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, said on
Tuesday lack of management was mainly responsible for the water crisis
in Bangladesh.
His remark came when a participant in a discussion on the
relationship between Bangladesh and India drew his attention to the
Farakka Barrage issue.
=91Water availability is not the issue. Problem is lack of
management,=92 Chakravarty said at the discussion following a lecture by
Indian author Nitish Sengupta on his book =91Bengal Divided: The
Unmaking of a Nation=92 at Gulshan.
The participant said the Farakka Barrage had turned out to be a
matter of life and death and that the issue had hit the relationship
between the countries hard.
Chakravarty said those who blamed India for overflow of water in
Bangladesh in the rainy season and drought in the summer were actually
living in an unreal world.
=91You have enough water. You can=92t manage it,=92 he said.
Sengupta, a former Indian bureaucrat and politician, said that
cross-border communication and people to people contacts were
important for strengthening relations between the countries.
He stressed the need for turning the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation into a reality to enhance cooperation among the
countries in the region.
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