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India and
Bangladesh officials met to iron out differences in inter-state customs levies, issues, and protocol to boost bilateral trade and the implementation of the Ganga Water
Accord of 1996.
The two countries agreed have a commissioner-level meeting every month, joint-commissioner level talks every 6 months, and a full-blown customs review every year. To facilitate the smooth flow of vehicles across the border, the countries decided to close customs stations on Friday because it was weekly holiday for Islamic Bangladesh, a motor vehicle agreement, and a financial review of a 4% customs duty levied by India on all imports from
Bangladesh. The two countries may arrange for a Memorandum of Understanding between Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution and the Bureau of Indian Standard to facilitate Indian recognition of lab test reports by Bangla laboratories. The meeting on customs is the second in a series after the initial one at Dhaka in August 2005.
The two nations did not see eye to eye on the quantity and adequate supply of water flowing through the Hardinge Bridge although both agreed that the water flow out of the Farakka Dam was as per the Ganga Water Accord. New Delhi says that it is releasing more than 40,000 cusecs of water against the agreed 35,000 cusecs and says that it cannot release more because of reduced rainfall in the catchments areas. However, Dhaka says that the water is being diverted upstream between Farakka and Hardinge Bridge causing the river to be at the lowest level in 50 years. The Joint Committee will continue discussions in June at New Delhi.
The Ganga Water discussions again highlight the lack of appropriate mechanisms to jointly measure water flow, catchments harvesting, monitoring water usage, and sharing. If such a mechanism existed, the water sharing could be converted to a percentage format so if there is a shortage of water, the burden of the drought could be shared appropriately.
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