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Drop Tipai dam project

Khaleda asks India; Hasina calls for unity on the issue

Staff Correspondent
BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia yesterday urged India to cancel the Tipaimukh dam project to implement the Indian prime minister's assurance in this regard.
She welcomed Indian PM Manmohan Singh's assuring her Bangladesh counterpart that New Delhi would not take any step regarding the dam that might affect bilateral relations.
She said, “If the project is cancelled, a large section of people in both the countries will be relieved of tension." Singh's assurance came at a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the sidelines of the Nam summit in Egypt Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hasina yesterday urged all to unite in efforts to ensure the country's interests with regard toTipaimukh dam.
"We want to take a decision on the issue unitedly," she was quoted as saying bv LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Syed Ashraful Islam.
Khaleda, on the other hand, asked the government to play a bold role to protect the national interest, saying, "Don't bowdown. Don't get afraid. You (government) are not alone. We (opposition) will be with you if the national interest is upheld. People will also be with you.”
Also leader of the opposition in parliament, she was addressing a programme titled A presentation on die harmful effects in Bangladesh due to the Tipaimukh project', organised by BNP ano held at a city hotel.
Former power secretary ANH Akhter Hossain made the presentation while former ministers Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain and Hafizuddin Ahmed. Prof Moniruzzaman Mian. Dr Mahbubullah and Sharif Rafiqul Islam took part in the discussion.
Some prominent persons including Prof Emajuddin Ahmed. Prof Yusuf Haidar. Prof Abu Ahmed. Rafiaue-ul Huq, Zafarullah Chowahruy, Hasna Moudud and business leader Abdul Awal Mintoo attended the programme, conducted by BNP Joint Secretary General Nazrul Islam Khan. Leaders of BNP and its allies, and environmentalists were also present.
Ruling Awami League leaders, cabinet members, the chairman of parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry and all MPs from greater Sylhet were also invited to the programme but they did not attend it.
Khaleda said, “We invited all concerned regardless of their political identity as the proposed dam has created apprehension that it would pose a dangerous problem for our country."
Stressing a national consensus to address important national issues, she said it would be tough to face Tipaimukh dam problem
without a national consensus.
The former prime minister said they have heard that the government did not get enough data on Tipaimukh dam.
But BNP has collected data with the help of renowned experts, she said, hoping that this would help the government take a bold decision regarding the Indian project.
'I don't want to criticise them [government], I am urging them to come forward to work together to resolve the national crisis,” Khaleda said. Not only on Tipaimukh issue, they want to help the government uphold all national interests, she added.
ASHRAF'S BRIEFING
Speaking to newsmen after a meeting of the party's council preparation committee at AL president's political office in Dhanmondi, Ashraf urged BNP not to make the Tipaimukh dam a political issue.
He termed the Tipaimukh dam a national problem and said the nation wants to resolve it unitedly.
"If we get divided as a nation. India will take chance and see their interests. United, we will be able to bargain strongly in favour of our interests," ne said.
The LGRD minister said the party that led the independence struggle would never allow anything harmful to national interests.
Criticising BNP, he said they did not speak against Tipaimukh dam in parliament or at party forum when they were in power.
"I was then a lawmaker and did not hear a word from any BNP minister, MP or the prime minister against Tipaimukh," he said, alleging that now BNP is out to exploit the issue for mere political gains.