The Patna letters
Since early 1993, Patna had been asking an unsympathetic central government for help in curbing the water appetite of upstream states. But even as talks were going on, Delhi. with the help of West Bengal, signed the Farakka Agreement with Bangladesh in December 1996. Excerpted below are the concerns of the Biharis in letters written by their Water Resources Minister; Jagadanand Singh, left, to the union minister for water resources in New Delhi:
(21 July 1994) Upstream UP's [Uttar Pradesh's] barrage project promoted with the concurrence of the Government of India (GOI) without examining its impact on lower riparian states such as Bihar and West Bengal, is regrettable. This project, as well as others on the various tributaries of the Ganga, places a question mark not only on Bihar's water rights but also on the ability of GOI to meet its international obligations.
(2 January 1995) …it is my suggestion that water be released between January to March from the reservoir of the Tehri dam, which is under construction, to meet the requirements of water at the Farakka barrage site.
(30 June 1995) By helping create the Damodar Valley Project, we denied ourselves our water, alienated our lands and destroyed our forests so that West Bengal could be saved. Today, if there is talk of Karnali or Pancheshwar, then provisions should be made in them for flood cushion as well as lean season flow at Farakka.
(13 December 1996) It is an unpleasant surprise to find that Bihar…[is] excluded from international and interstate talks on sharing the Ganga. From newspapers we learn that India and Bangladesh are going to have an agreement on water allocation. While Bihar has been kept in the dark about this, West Bengal has been provided the opportunity for full participation. The Chief Minister of West Bengal was instructed by the Centre to help finalise the treaty and even to prepare its draft. From Doordarshan TV we learn that the Bangladeshi Prime Minister has come to India to finalise the treaty, and that India has agreed to provide Bangladesh a minimum of 34,500 cusecs of water.
(January 1997?) It seems that this international agreement was done in haste, alarmed that north Bihar's water use was increasing with growing rabi (winter) and garma (pre-monsoon) crops. India government will be hard pressed to uphold this agreement without curtailing water use in its upstream states. Bihar government has made arrangements for the last four years to use the waters of the Kosi, Gandak, Mahananda, etc, for garma crops. Now the Central government is going to ask Bihar to contribute to fulfilling the terms of this new [Farakka] agreement.