DHAKA, Nov, 15, Reuter: Bangladesh President Hussain Mohammad Ershad is likely to discuss a dispute over the waters of the Ganges River with the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi during the South Asian Summit, officials said today.
They said Ershad would bring up the longstanding question of sharing the waters of bilateral talks with Gandhi during the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) in Bangalore.
SAARC groups Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives.
“The Ganges may not be as urgent an issue as Tamil guerrillas and Sikh extremists, but this is no less serious as far as we are concerned”, one Bangladeshi official told the reporters.
He said a ministerial level meeting on the Ganges question ended in New Delhi on Thursday, but its outcome would only be known after the Ershad Gandhi meeting expected to be held tomorrow.
Bangladesh and India signed an interim agreement last year on sharing the waters, needed for dry season irrigation and drinking supplies.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 21, 1986
