Get int'l survey for Tipai
Inhabitants of haor areas in the Sylhet division and its adjacent districts yesterday demanded a neutral international survey on the impacts of Tipaimukh dam on Bangladesh's rivers, environment, human habitation and economy.
Addressing a human chain programme in front of the Jatiya Press Club in the capital's Topkhana, they also called on the Indian government to cancel its plan for building the dam before conducting the survey.
The speakers said if the dam is built without any concern for the fate of around 80 lakh haor residents, they might have no choice but to beg for their livelihoods.
The Indian government has decided to construct the dam on the Barak river at Tipaimukh of Manipur state.
The haor residents also urged the Bangladesh government to take effective measures for collecting signatures of some other countries to ratify international river convention, which is imperative to ensure due rights over the common rivers.
They said although the government had formed a haor development board more than 30 years ago, successive governments did nothing to activate it.
Organised under the banner of “Residents of Haor Areas,” the programme was addressed by green activist Habib Raja, among others.
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