Patna: Deputy CM-cum-water resources department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on Tuesday said the gravity of the flood situation in the Ganga basin had once again highlighted the need to review the Farakka barrage and the India-Bangladesh treaty on sharing Ganga waters, first signed on Dec 12, 1996.With the treaty due for renewal in Dec this year, the JD(U) has begun a phased dialogue with people in 12 Ganga basin districts on its alleged adverse impact on Bihar’s interests. Choudhary blamed the then Union govt and state govt for failing to protect the state’s interests, referring to the United Front govt led by PM H D Deve Gowda and the then CM Lalu Prasad.The dialogue, called ‘Nitish Dialogues’, focuses on problems linked to the treaty. “Even those parties which were indifferent to the Bihar interests have now started raising the questions about the treaty, like the JD(U) has been doing,” Choudhary said at the state JD(U) headquarters.He said huge silt deposits had accumulated in the Ganga over the five decades since the Farakka barrage was built, reducing the river’s depth and water-carrying capacity.“As a result of it, the natural course of the river has been affected, and the floods and erosion of the banks have become an annual phenomenon,” Choudhary said. He cited severe erosion of an embankment in Kharik block of Bhagalpur district this year after the river showed a tendency to change course.“To fulfill the conditions of the treaty, Bihar has to forsake 1,500 cusecs of water during the lean period, while this volume of water is fed into the Ganga by other Bihar rivers,” he said.Choudhary hoped the renewed treaty would protect Bihar’s interests, as the state needs Ganga water for drinking, irrigation and industrial use.
