Dhaka, Delhi 'hopeful of Teesta deal'

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Bangladesh and India expressed optimism about signing a deal on Teesta's water sharing at the end of the first session of talks on water-related issues in the city Monday.
"We want to share water with Bangladesh, there is no doubt about it," Indian Water Resources Secretary UN Panjiar told reporters when asked whether the much-awaited Teesta deal would be inked, reports bdnews24.com.
"We are very very considerate. We want to consider and we will certainly consider all the problems of Bangladesh," he said.
"We want to take into consideration the concerns of Bangladesh also, there is no doubt about it."
The three-day secretary-level talks of the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) between the two countries started Monday morning at state guesthouse Meghna.
Water Resources Secretary Shaikh Mohammed Wahid-uz-Zaman is leading the Bangladesh side while Mr Panjiar heads a seven-member delegation.
"Things are moving positively. We are fully optimistic that we will get a positive result (on signing a deal on sharing Teesta)," Mr Zaman told reporters at the Meghna.
He said the two sides would discuss dredging of the common river Ichhamati, irrigating and supplying portable water to Indian people from Feni river, riverbank protection of the common rivers and preparing drafts on sharing the Teesta water.
The Indian water resources secretary made it clear that there was no chance of holding the ministerial level meeting of the JRC ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Delhi visit scheduled for January 10.
Both secretaries told the media that they would discuss other issues at the next sessions of the talks over the next two days.
Dhaka has been urging New Delhi for decades for a deal on the common river Teesta, on which Bangladesh has the largest irrigation project covering 750,000 hectares of land in the greater Rangpur region.
Bangladesh cannot go for the second phase of the project due to water crunch in the river during dry seasons.
India in 1990s constructed a barrage in Gazoldoba in the upstream for irrigation, which dries up the Teesta in the downstream.