A Correspondent:
Rangpur: The Riverine People Club of Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur (BRUR) formed a hu-man chain yesterday seeking redress from the International Court of Justice to stop India’s unilat-eral withdrawal of Teesta water.
Riverine People Club’s Member-secretary Shihab Pradhan moderated the human chain while its organizer and BRUR teacher of the Department of Bengali Khairul Islam Polash delivered a wel-come speech.
Convener of the Riverine People’s Club of BRUR Chaomun Patwari Supta presided over the hu-man chain program that ended in front of the university gate yesterday afternoon.
Professor of the Department of Bengali of BRUR and Director of the Riverine People Dr Tuhin Wadud, Head of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems Umar Faruk, river work-ers and university students Shamsur Rahman Suman, Rahamat Ali, among others, addressed.
The speakers described the current water-depleted state of the Teesta after an on-site inspection and discussed the issue of the Bangladesh government taking effective steps to implement the Teesta Water Treaty and other similar river water treaties with India.
They discussed different aspects of sufferings of the people dependent on the Teesta River, public life, ecosystems, biodiversity, economy, river erosion and floods.
They discussed the need for Bangladesh to realize its fair share of the Teesta River water as soon as possible and to seek compensation for the geological and economic damage caused to Bangladesh due to the unilateral withdrawal of water by India so far.
Dr Tuhin Wadud said that due to India’s unilateral withdrawal of water, the Teesta River is becom-ing dry. In fact, the agriculture-based economy and ecosystem of the northern region are suffering due to the water crisis.
Dr Tuhin, also an environmentalist, suggested the authorities concerned file a petition to the In-ternational Court of Justice seeking redress from India’s unilateral withdrawal of Teesta water to realize the fair share of the river water.
