Patna: Nearly a month before the scheduled expiry of the 30-year-old India-Bangladesh Ganga Water Sharing Treaty in Dec, chief minister Samrat Choudhary on Wednesday said Bihar’s interests must be protected before Union govt takes any decision on renewing the international agreement.Addressing a seminar on ‘Ganga Water Treaty: Water Security of Bihar’, organised by state govt’s water resources department here, Choudhary said Bihar should have the right to use adequate Ganga water for drinking, irrigation and industrial purposes. He formally inaugurated the seminar by pouring Ganga water into a ‘kalash’.The treaty was signed on Dec 12, 1996, by then Indian Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and his Bangladeshi counterpart, Sheikh Hasina. Valid for 30 years, it lays down a legal formula for sharing the lean-season flow of Ganga at Farakka Barrage in West Bengal.Choudhary said Bihar’s rivers, water resources and population should be turned into the state’s greatest strength rather than being treated as weaknesses. “If we succeed in turning our weaknesses into strengths, no one can stop Bihar from becoming a prosperous state,” he said.He said adequate water availability was essential for Bihar’s development, agricultural expansion and industrial progress. The state, he added, needs water for drinking, farmers’ irrigation requirements and industrial operations, and Bihar’s interests should receive top priority in all matters concerning Ganga water and the treaty.The CM also referred to the resolution of the 25-year-old dispute between Bihar and Jharkhand over sharing Sone river water. He said the issue was settled with the cooperation of Union home minister Amit Shah, under which Bihar will receive three-fourth of the water.Choudhary said Bihar govt has framed a state-level policy on silt management. Scientific removal and use of silt from Ganga and other rivers will be ensured, and Ganga silt and soil will be made available for public use as well as road and other construction works. An agreement with NHAI will be signed for this purpose. He also called for a national silt management policy.He stressed scientific strengthening of Ganga embankments and said experts should conduct an aerial survey to assess the river’s flow, condition and silt deposition.Deputy chief ministers Vijay Kumar Chaudhary and Bijendra Prasad Yadav, and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Kumar Jha also addressed the seminar.
