Teesta issue: Will take Mamata on board, says Sushma

[caption id="attachment_119538" align="aligncenter" width="565"] External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with Ministers of State MJ Akbar and V K Singh during the ministry's Annual Press Conference in New Delhi on Monday. PTI Photo[/caption]   New Delhi, June 5 (IANS): External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said the government will take on board West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while negotiating with Bangladesh the vexed Teesta waters issue. Stating that efforts were fully on to resolve the issue, she, however, said no definite time line can be given as to when such problems can be solved. Though an agreement on sharing of the Teesta waters was drafted ahead of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Bangladesh, it was withdrawn at the last moment when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee protested against the accord. Banerjee’s position is that the treaty would render north Bengal dry and affect Indian farmers. She is of the view that with Bangladesh having its largest irrigation project, the Teesta Barrage, running, the country does not deserve more water. However, during Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India in April this year, Bannerjee offered an alternative solution and said that rivers like Torsa, Dharla and Mansai can be tapped. Sushma Swaraj said a feasibility study was being done on Banerjee’s alternative and the report would be shared with the West Bengal Chief Minister. Regarding the fishermen’s issue with Sri Lanka, Sushma Swaraj said that apart from the Tamil Nadu government, the central government has been continuously engaging in negotiations with Sri Lanka to find a solution. She said New Delhi has taken this issue so seriously that for the first time two ministers from Sri Lanka -- the Foreign Minister and the Fisheries Minister -- and two ministers from India -- she and Fisheries Minister Radha Mohan Singh -- held a meeting solely on the fishermen’s issue. “From that meeting we have found that a permanent solution to the problem is deep sea fishing,” she stated. “For this, we have told them that the Indian government has prepared a Rs 1,500 crore package.” Stating that India would spend Rs 500 crore a year for the next three yeas, Sushma Swaraj said Sri Lanka has been asked to make an interim arrangement in the meantime so that Indian fishermen were not killed or arrested. Sushma Swaraj said that today Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen as among the leading international leaders and India was playing a prominent role in all global issues. She said that compared to the last three years of the UPA government, there has been a 37.5 per cent increase in foreign direct investments (FDI) in the first three years of the NDA government.