Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has once again questioned the proposed land agreement between India and Bangladesh.
Questioning the wisdom behind giving away more acreage in lieu of less land the Chief Minister has written on the Facebook that the State Government had mentioned to the National Security Adviser and the previous and present Ministers of External Affairs, the need for obtaining consent from the people residing in the areas that are to be transferred adding Bengal in the process would get only 7,000 acres whereas it would have to cede 17,000 acres to its eastern neighbour.
Insisting that the local people whose interests were at stake would have to be taken into confidence before such decision were taken Banerjee referred to the botched Teesta agreement saying “the case of Teesta Water Agreement may be recalled where during the draft stage, Centre had said something but proposed something totally different in the final stage.”
Soon after coming to power as an ally of the UPA-II, Banerjee had in the last moment withdrawn herself from her trip to Bangladesh with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — who was to sign the Teesta agreement — causing great embarrassment for the Centre.
lambasting the Centre for trying to disturb regions like Bengal for small political gains she asked “what is the hurry to give away our land and our water without the consent of the State GovernmentIJ What type of politics the Central Government is trying to playIJ”
She said though India maintained friendship and good relations with Bangladesh “it should not be at the cost of the people of West Bengal.”