The Left Democratic Front on Friday called upon the people to carry forward movement to secure equitable rights on Teesta and other common rivers with a view to facing the threat to the country’s existence.
The Front organised which a road-march to the Bangladesh part of the Teesta in Rangpur on 8-10 April as the river’s flow came down to the lowest minimum of 300 cusecs (cubic feet per second) this lean season, held a convention at the National Press Club auditorium on the day to increase momentum of the movement.District level representatives of the front from across Bangladesh attended the convention, narrated their sad experience of drying up of rivers, loss of fishery, vegetation, agriculture, riverine transportation and livelihood of people as a result of diversion of rivers from across the border.
Delegates and leaders attending the convention felt that the rulers have sacrificed the interests of Bangladesh to big neighbour India by following a subservient foreign policy, and failed to face water aggression.
They said that neither the ruling party not the major opposition would be able to protect the rivers which form lifeline for Bangladesh, because they either occupy dried up rivers or give protection to those do so. There is no alternative to mass movement to reassert Bangladesh’s rights because a government devoid of popular support cannot achieve this.
Presided over by Shubhrangshu Chakrabarti the convention was addressed by Prof. Emeritus of Dhaka University Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, language hero Ahmed Rafiq, engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, water expert Inamul Huq, economist Prof. Anu Muhammad, journalists Mostafa Kamal Majumder and Abu Sayed Khan, environmentalist Abdul Matin, Dr. Swapan Adnan, Mubinul Haider Chowdhury of BSD, Saiful Huq, general secretary of Biplobi Workers’ Party, Moshrefa Mishu, gs ganatantrik biplabi party, Junaid Saki of Ganasanghati Andolan, Mosharraf Hossain Nannu of United Communist League, acting president of BSD Yasin Ahmed and convener of Bangladesh Samajtantrik Andolan Hamidul Huq among others.
The district delegates called for people’s movement against the corrupt political leaders who are resorting to killings, abductions and enforced disappearances to make their position in power secure. How corrupt people can be secular, they asked.
The protested against giving transit and corridor to the big neighbour without upholding the national interest and said only the people can fight this assault on the country’s security and democracy. – Staff Reporter
