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Bangladesh hopes to sign Teesta pact in 3 months

Bangladesh said there is "no room for changes" in the earlier agreed text.

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Bangladesh today hoped to sign the much-awaited Teesta water sharing deal with India in the next three months, but said there is "no room for changes" in the earlier agreed text.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expecting to strike the water sharing deal in three months,” Foreign Secretary Mijarul Quayes told a press conference as Dhaka came up with its first official reaction to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's two-day Dhaka visit.

Quayes rejected the main opposition BNP's charge that Singh's tour has yielded "little" or no result and declined to describe it a "failed visit", saying "a single (issue of) disappointment can not outweigh successes in other areas".

"Non-fulfillment of a particular expectation does not necessarily mean failure of the visit when it has yielded so many positive results in other areas," he underlined.

Replying to a question about possible changes in the earlier prepared draft on the Teesta Agreement, Quayes said it would be signed as per the terms and conditions that were agreed by both the countries ahead of the Indian premier's visit.

"There is no room for changes in the previous text," the top diplomat said.

Asked why the deal was not signed or who should be blamed for the setback, the Foreign Secretary said "the answer is very simple. India informed us that it was yet to be prepared to make the deal".

"If a country backs away from an agreement due to some unanticipated development, then that country has to shoulder the responsibility," he said.

Commenting on the outcome of the Indian premier’s tour, he said bilateral relations has reached a new high and it would improve further as fraternity continues from both sides.

"Bangladesh and India have resolved many long-standing problems through visits of two prime ministers to each other's country," Quayes said.

Prime Minister Singh has said all technicalities of an agreement on Teesta river water-sharing with Bangladesh were settled but West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's disagreement with it led to the cancellation of its signing.

"I was told all the technicalities were settled but "in the meantime something obviously happened and Mamataji disagreed with it", the prime minister said yesterday.

He said although signing a treaty with another country is in the Centre's domain, "we decided to take along the concerned state governments".

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