Bapa calls for basinwide approach

In a statement, Bapa President Prof Muzaffer Ahmad and General Secretary Mohidul Hoque Khan also called on India to refrain from its plans to withdraw waters from the tributaries or sources of water of the Ganges and Brahmaputra.

India's river linking project (RLP) involves withdrawal of waters from tributary rivers that provide the water flow of these two major rivers, it added.

Bapa said the memorandum of understanding between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh provides diversion of the rivers Ken and Betwa which are the tributaries of the river Yamuna, the major source of the Ganges.

The RLP has another component through which water of Manos and Sankosh, two major water sources of the river Brahmaputra, will be diverted, it noted.

In this context, the verbal assurance of the Indian Minister for Water Resources in the recent Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting in Dhaka, would not have any real substance unless India immediately refrains from its plan for withdrawal of waters from the tributaries or sources of water of these rivers, the press release added.