Hasina, Singh to discuss Tipaimukh dam at NAM Summit

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is likely to take up the issue of the cross border Tipaimukh dam project in Manipur with her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh when the two leaders meet on the sidelines of the NAM summit in Egypt this week.

An all party delegation from Bangladesh that was scheduled to visit Manipur on July 15 will now visit the site after Hasina returns from Egypt, an official said.

Hasina and Singh are expected to meet on the sidelines of the July 15-16 summit of Non-Alligned Movement in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-al-Sheikh.

Under pressure from the opposition on the issue, Hasina has maintained that she favoured talks with India to settle the matter.

Bangladesh's main opposition party BNP and environmentalists have opposed the project saying it would have negative effects on the environment.

"The scheduled visit of a parliamentary delegation to the project site has been deferred therefore," an official at the parliamentary standing committee on water resources ministry was quoted as saying by the New Age newspaper.

The fresh date will be fixed once the prime minister returns from Egypt on July 17, the official said.

Bangladesh Water Resource Minister Ramesh Chandra Sen had earlier said that the government would take necessary steps on the issue after the team that includes two experts, returns from India.