W Bengal may have blocked Teesta deal

---

NEW DELHI, March 20 (bdnews24.com): The two-day Joint River Commission (JRC) ministerial meeting in New Delhi failed to strike a deal as expected on sharing of Teesta River, apparently because of West Bengal.
Both New Delhi and Dhaka claimed that the JRC talks between Bangladesh Water Resources Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen and Indian counterpart Pawan Kumar Bansal made significant progress towards an agreement for sharing of water of the common river during the dry season.
But Indian analysts stressed that the central government in New Delhi could not strike a deal without protecting West Bengal's interests that was also dependent on a fair share of Teesta water for irrigation and hydropower generation.
India Saturday said that the next move towards inking an agreement on Teesta might be made in just a couple of months. New Delhi also sought to stress that both sides had agreed to conclude an interim agreement on the issue and it should be seen as one of the positive outcomes of the meeting.
The joint press release issued at the end of the JRC meeting late at night Friday termed the exchange of drafts as a "significant movement forward" on the issue of sharing of water of Teesta. India presented a draft Statement of Principles for sharing the Teesta water during the dry season, while Bangladesh also gave India a draft of an interim agreement for the same purpose.
Ramesh and Bansal told journalists that the JRC meet, which was held after a gap of five years, helped both sides understand each other's position better and decide on the future courses of cooperation.