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Tipai team leaves tomorrow

Writ petition filed seeking steps to stop dam construction

STAR REPORT
The parliamentary delegation leaving for India tomorrow to visit Tipaimukh dam site may propose India for a joint study on the hydro-electricity project on the common river Borak.
Abdur Razzak, chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources Ministry, leads the 12-member delegation.
The team, accompanied by experts and officials, will hold a meeting with officials of Indian power ministry on July 29 and officials of Indian foreign ministry on July 30. They will visit the Tipaimukh dam site in Manipur on July 31. reports UNB. During the discussions, the delegation will ask for more data from the feasibility and impact assessment studies of India. Dhaka may request New Delhi to carry out a joint study on the proposed dam.
According to preliminary rep^ns, India has constructed an approach road and a project office at the dam site, 210km upstream of the Boark from Bangladesh border. The project aims at generating 1,500 megawatt of electricity.
"First of all, we will see if there is any structure, second, exactly what India wants to do there, irrigation project or hydro-electricity project including flood-protection embankment, and third if the Tipaimukh project will cause environmental damages only to India or to Bangladesh too," Razzak told BBC Bangia serviceyesterdayevening.
He said it is very unfortunate that the parliamentary delegation could not include anyone from the main opposition, BNP.
"As of now there are eleven members but none from the BNP is going with us that is for sure," he said.
WRIT PETITION
Meanwhile, a writ petition was
filed with the High Court yesterday seeking direction from the court upon the government to take immediate steps to halt the construction of the proposed Tipaimukh Dam.
The petition challenged the government's "inaction" in stopping the construction of the dam.
Abu Naser Rahmatullah, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatiya Party, filed the writ petition as public interest litigation.
The petition also prayed to the court to issue a rule upon the government to explain as to why its decision on sending a parliamentary team to visit the Tipaimukh site, without having exact information and data regarding the dam from India, should not be declared illegal.
The lawyer for the petitioner Tajul Islam told The Daily Star that the hearing on the petition would be held tomorrow.
All the international laws regarding the construction of dams stand in favour of Bangladesh but the government is not taking any initiatives to stop the construction, he said, adding that the national interest would be hurt if India constructs the dam.