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As PM Modi expresses hope for easly solution to Teesta issue, TMC remains tight-lipped

On the Teesta water issue, PM Modi said the pact is important for Indo-Bangla relationship and expressed hope that Mamata Banerjee will eventually support it.

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Narendra Modi, Sheikh Hasina and Mamata Banerjee
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On the second day of her four-day trip, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee inaugurated three transport linkages between India and Bangladesh through a video link from New Delhi today.

While the Kolkata-Khulna-Dhaka bus service was inaugurated from Delhi, it was flagged off from Nabanna, the state secretariat by Bangladeshi and Indian delegates including Mamata’s cabinet ministers Firhad Hakim, Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Mukherjee. Buses will be available from Karunamoyee in Salt Lake and would cover the 409-km route in approximately 12 hours. A new train route from Kolkata to Khulna was also inaugurated along with a goods train between Radhikapur and Birol.

As many as 22 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) have been signed between the two countries but the Teesta water sharing treaty had been left out subject to a discussion between Hasina and Mamata.

On the Teesta water issue, Modi said the pact is important for Indo-Bangla relationship and expressed hope that the West Bengal chief minister will eventually support it.

"I am very happy that the chief minister of West Bengal is my honoured guest today. I know that her feelings for Bangladesh are as warm as my own. I assure you and the people of Bangladesh of our commitment and continuing efforts," he said, adding he "firmly" believes that an early solution to the issue "can and will" be found.

However, TMC leaders like Hakim refused to comment on the Teesta issue saying that it would be decided by Mamata and keeping his comment restricted saying, “Geographically there is a border between the two countries but there is a relation from the hearts of citizens of the two countries. There are families spread across both the countries and is a cultural exchange. Mamata and Hasina share a sister-like relationship and every little issue would be solved we are optimistic,” he said.

Congress MP and state party president Adhir Chowdhury said that the friendly relationship between India and Bangladesh had started deepening during the time of Indira Gandhi. “Teesta was however one issue which had been long pending. Water experts of both countries should sit and discuss the issue and find a viable solution as soon as possible. Instead of being adamant on our points we should understand the lower riparian country and divide the resource according to availability,” Chowdhury told DNA.

CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty too was of the opinion that there should be a way forward. “Each other’s advantages should substantiate and a discussion aimed to find a solution to this deadlock should take place. We must understand that a good relationship between the two neighbouring countries would lead to each others prosperity,” he said talking to DNA.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said that he was confident Prime Minister Narendra Modi would figure out a solution. “When our PM is dealing with the issue we can be rest assured that there will be a solution arrived at without affecting the interest of the country and West Bengal,” Ghosh told DNA.

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