India implementing river-link project tactfully: IFC

Speaking at a press conference, IFC Chairman Eusufzai said water of the Brahmmaputra would be obviously extracted even though the project is not implemented in the Eastern Zone.

The press conference was organised at the National Press Club in the city yesterday after the IFC' s two-day long march towards Chilmari in Kurigram in protest against the project.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

The IFC is a New York-based environmentalist forum of Bangladeshi expatriates.

The IFC leaders said they are planning to go to the international tribunal against India's move to implement the IRLP violating international water conventions.

"India has already dug up canals in the Southern Zone and is now digging in Guzrat and Hariyana," said Dr SI Khan, a former UN expert on environment.

He said there are loopholes in the speeches made by the Indian water resources minister in Kolkata and its high commissioner in Dhaka.

SI Khan urged the government not to 'fall in the trap of India's clever diplomacy'.

IFC Secretary General Syed Tipu Sultan said there can't be any bilateral discussion on the rivers that flow over more than two countries.

He called for multilateral agreement on trans-boundary rivers in cooperation with China, Nepal, Bhutan, India and Bangladesh basing on the international conventions with the United Nations as guarantor.