16 months on, expert ‘ready with report but CM yet to ask for it’

Even though the UPA government has shown its eagerness to sign the Teesta water sharing agreement with Bangladesh — President Pranab Mukherjee, on his first visit to the country on Sunday assured Dhaka of a quick settlement of the issue — West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee does not seem to be keen on such an understanding at this juncture.

For, Mamata has not yet asked for the report of Kalyan Rudra Commission on Teesta water sharing that she set up on November 15 in 2011, on a day when Bangladesh Foreign Minister Deepu Moni met her at the Writers' Buildings. Moni had visited Kolkata following Mamata's refusal to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka on September 6 where the Teesta accord, along with other agreements, was supposed to be signed.

After her meeting with Moni, Mamata announced the setting up of the one-man commission headed by eminent river expert Kalyan Rudra. "I am a friend of Bangladesh and we are eager that they are not deprived of the water they deserve. We are setting up the commission and we will try to abide by the recommendations of the commission,'' Mamata said. Rudra said that time that he would submit the report in a month.

But strangely even though 16 months have passed, Rudra has not submitted his report. The reason: Mamata has not asked for it. "I am ready with the report and have told the Chief Minister that I am ready to submit it as soon as she asks for it. But she said she would call me when the time comes. That time has not yet come. I am waiting. I just don't want to get into any politics,'' Rudra told The Indian Express.

The peeved expert said he spent so much time and energy to prepare the report and tried to find an amicable solution to the problem.

... contd.

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