Bangladesh's main opposition in parliament Tuesday called a dawn-to-dusk general strike in the country's northeastern Sylhet division on Dec. 1 to protest Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's incumbent Bangladesh Awami League-led government's "inaction" about an investment agreement on the construction of Tipaimukh Dam and a hydroelectric project on a common river Barak in Manipur state of northeastern India.
The agreement was signed on Oct. 22 among NHPC Ltd (formally National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and India's premier hydropower company), the Manipur state government and another state enterprise SJVN (formally Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd) to form a joint venture company to implement the project.
M Ilias Ali, a Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader in Sylhet, some 241 km northeast of capital Dhaka, made the announcement at a press briefing and demanded immediate cancellation of the project, alleging it would cause havoc in entire northeastern region of Bangladesh.
Two-time former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's BNP announced that it would resist the Indian move to construct Tipaimukh Dam over Barak as it, she said, will turn Bangladesh into a desert.
The proposed Tipaimukh dam will be constructed near the confluence of Barak and Tuivai rivers in Manipur state of India and within 100 km of Bangladesh's border. India claimed that the dam will be constructed for irrigation purpose and it would not adversely affect the lower riparian Bangladesh.
The proposed Tipaimukh Hydroelectric Project to be constructed in India's northeastern state of Manipur triggered debates among water experts and environmentalists home and abroad, who apprehend that it would dry up the Surma and Kushiara rivers in eastern Bangladesh and cast adverse impact on ecology.
India started the construction of Tipaimukh Dam on the Barak in 2003 to generate 1500 megawatt electricity. The construction was later halted due to national and international uproar and resistance against possible environmental degradation in and outside India. It resumed construction in late 2008.
Bangladesh's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement said Sunday it has sought information from New Delhi as it has come to know about the investment agreement going through a press release of NHPC (National Hydropower Corporation) of India dated Oct. 24, 2011.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on three occasions over the last 21 months reportedly promised not to take any steps regarding Tipaimukh dam that would harm Bangladesh.