Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said Bangladesh has benefited from her visit to India. She has not returned empty handed. Said that his visit has opened a new horizon in the relations between the two friendly neighbours. India and Bangladesh signed seven agreements during his visit.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s remarks came after leaders of the main opposition BNP alleged that Bangladesh got nothing from her visit to India, while its general secretary Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said Hasina was unable to negotiate with India. Sheikh Hasina described the MoU on Kushiara River as a big achievement. He said that the two countries have also signed agreements on cooperation in the fields of environment, climate change, cyber security, space technology and green economy.
Prime Minister Hasina said the MoU on cross-border Kushiyara river is one of the major achievements of her visit. Because it was expected to protect 5,820,000 hectares of land from floods in the northeast Sylhet region of Bangladesh. He said that as per the MoU, Bangladesh will get 153 cusecs of water from the Kushiyara river under the Surma-Kushiyara project and as a result, 5,000 hectares of land will be irrigated through the Rahimpur Link Canal.
Bangladesh and India had signed the Ganga Treaty in 1996 during Hasina’s ruling Awami League government. He said that the two countries have reached an agreement on cooperation in the fields of environment, climate change, cyber security, space technology and green economy, cultural and people-to-people communication. Hasina said New Delhi has agreed not to prohibit exports of products such as sugar, onion, garlic and ginger to Bangladesh without informing Dhaka in advance so that Bangladesh can find alternative sources for those essentials.
