The all-party parliamentary committee cannot visit the Tipaimukh dam project site by July 15 even after completion of all preparations, the water resources minister said on Monday.

“The committee cannot visit the site within the particular time as Awami League and Jatiya Party are set to hold national council and it did not receive any letter from the foreign ministry,” Ramesh Chandra Sen told reporters at the Secretariat.

The committee was set to go to India on July 15. But he hoped that the committee would visit the site by this month.

Sen also said his ministry received no letter from opposition chief Khaleda Zia containing a list of names for a six-member representative team including four experts to visit the controversial dam site.

A three-member delegation led by BNP joint secretary general Nazrul Islam Khan handed the letter to officials at the prime minister’s office on June 29.

“We have not got any letter from the opposition. If we receive one there is no scope to send a separate delegation.

“The delegation will have to go with the government committee. There is one MP from the four-party alliance,” he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami MP Hamidur Rahman Azad represents the four-party alliance in the parliamentary committee on water resources.

BNP chief Khaleda on June 22 wrote to Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, informing him of Bangladeshis’ concern over the proposed dam.

Hasina on June 24 suggested that the BNP send its own team of experts and report to the government. The parliamentary team would also go, she told parliament on.

India has approved plans for a 1,500 megawatt project at Tipaimukh in Manipur state across the Barak River which flows from the northeast into Bangladesh..

Experts warn that the dam could cause two Bangladeshi rivers, the Surma and Kushiara in Sylhet, to dry up.

Opposition parties and environmental experts say will affect a river system shared by the two countries.

Barak carries seven to eight percent of Bangladesh’s water supply. Hundreds of small rivers and water bodies are dependent on the river for water supply.

Environmentalists in Bangladesh fear that the drying up of the water bodies will lead to the unemployment of millions of people dependent on the water bodies.

Source: bdnews24.com