Bangladesh Complaints to India over Flooding of Eastern Districts
NEW DELHI, Aug 22: The Bangladesh Chief Adviser Prof Mohammad Yunus on Thursday summoned the Indian High Commissioner Pranay Verma for a meeting that the Indian side described as a “normal call on.”
The meeting was held minutes after Prof Yunus met his senior colleagues over the unprecedented floods in the eastern districts of Bangladesh that his administration has blamed on India releasing water from neighbouring Tripura without “early warning.”
Information and Broadcasting Adviser Nahid Islam said India has behaved in an inhumane manner by releasing water without early warning. He said this during a meeting with the media in Dhaka. The Indian ministry of external affairs, however, has denied the reports that the floods in the eastern district of Bangladesh were caused due to the opening of the Dumbur dam in Tripura.
Western Tripura and parts of Bangladesh have been inundated with rain in the last few days and this was largely responsible for the flooding in downstream Bangladesh. The Dumbur dam, a hydropower project, had been “auto-releasing” water as a consequence of the rainfall, their statement noted.
The Dumbur dam is a hydroelectric project and is built upon the Gumti river which flows through India and Bangladesh. Heavy rainfall has been continuing since August 21 in the whole of Tripura and the adjoining districts of Bangladesh. Relentless monsoon rains and flooding have stranded nearly three million people in Bangladesh and killed two people, submerging vast areas and damaging homes and infrastructure, officials from the country’s disaster management ministry said on Thursday.
(Manas Dasgupta)
