The Trinamool Congress is unhappy with the Centre for unanimously taking decisions on the renewal of the 1996 Ganga Water Sharing Treaty with Bangladesh. Senior TMC MP Derek O’ Brien on Sunday questioned the propriety of Centre’s action in going ahead with “Farakka-Ganga” treaty without consulting Bengal which was one of the stake- holders. “The state is a party to the treaty. Even our dues for the previous treaty have not been cleared,”

O’Brien said adding, “Dredging of the Ganga has been stopped. It is the primary reason for floods and erosion. This is a plan to sell off Bengal.”

The TMC leader’s statement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s discussions with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina regarding the Ganga Water sharing treaty.

The Prime Minister had on Saturday said that discussions would be held at technical level between India and her eastern neighbour regarding the renewal of the 1996 Ganga water treaty for which and Indian technical team would soon visit that country. Talks on Teesta water is likely to come up in that course, sources said.

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who shares a good relationship with Bangla Prime Minister had however exercised immense pressure on the Centre stalling the talks on the sharing of Teesta waters when Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister.

The TMC Government has been protesting against what is called a faulty Farakka Treaty that had caused large-scale erosion and inundation in this part of the border owing to Ganga and its tributaries gobbling up large chunks of lands every year.