JRC meet unlikely before BD-India PM level talks

The much-awaited Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting prior to the Prime Minister level talks between Bangladesh and India is uncertain as they failed to gather data on six rivers that were halted for Corona pandemic in the last 9 months.
"Issues like construction of river embankments to prevent erosion, two-km stretch of the un-demarcated Mahurirchar land and other unresolved matters were schedule to be discussed at the meeting, unfortunately, you yet to complete the tasks before December 17 (the meeting date between the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India). The discussion will be taking place soon," a senior official of JRC told this      correspondent on Saturday.
Earlier, it has been said that both the governments are going to take preparations to hold the Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting prior to the Prime Minister level meeting for exchanging views and sharing different data.
"Bangladesh and India also agreed to exchange data and prepare the framework for interim water-sharing agreements of six more trans-boundary rivers - Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla, and Dudhkumar," the official said.
Earlier, water sharing agreements of two rivers-the Teesta and Feni-were finalised in 2011, but no agreement was signed at that time.
"We will fix a new date after discussing with India," the official added. According to him the members of the Commission are exchanging views on a regular basis.
Although Bangladesh and India have 54 common rivers, the two countries have only one relevant treaty signed in 1996 which oversees the sharing of water of the Ganges River.
The last 37th JRC Ministerial-level Meeting took place in New Delhi in March 2010, while the 38th meeting was scheduled to be held in Dhaka in 2011, but is yet to take place.
The Border River Protection and Development Project that plans protective work alongside the Kushiyara banks has been awaiting approval for long due to reluctance of the Indian authorities, the Ministry sources said.
"We need to share data here and to demark the border line," official said.
Sources said it has become difficult to protect river banks from erosion along the border in Rajshahi, Chapainwabganj, Rangpur, Kurigram and Sylhet districts. The rivers constituting the border often change their course due to erosion inside Bangladesh territory, creating problems for the people living along the frontiers.
As per the Mujib-Indira Treaty of 1974, the midstream of the rivers forms the border between the two countries. But as the rivers have shifted their courses inside Bangladesh territory, Bangladeshis are being deprived of their cultivable land, which has fallen on the Indian side following erosion, according to sources in the Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB).
About 3,000 acres in Majorgaon, Amolshid, Lakshmibazar, Sultanpur, Senapatirchak and Manikpur in Zakiganj upazila are now part of the Indian state of Assam due to erosion by the Kushiyara, while 250 acres in Balla, Uttarkul, Munshibazar, Rosulpur and Dighli on the banks of the Surma River in Sylhet region have also been washed away to India due to erosion on the Bangladesh side.
in October the Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said the scheduled Joint Rivers Commission meeting between Bangladesh and India had been deferred to some extent through a consensus to make it fruitful with better preparations.
'We had to defer the meeting through consensus,' he told journalists adding that the meeting would be held when both sides would be ready to hold it with required information and data on the table.
Momen said that this would depend on their further homework.