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Bangladesh and India signed the landmark 30-year treaty in December 1996 soon after the Awami League came to power.
The treaty has 'helped widen the irrigation network in the country', Water Resources Minister L K Siddiqui told the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) on Sunday.
"Before the treaty, 10,000-45,000 hectares of land under the Ganga Kabodak project was under irrigation. But for the last few years following signing of the treaty, 15,000-58,000 hectares of land was brought under irrigation," he was quoted as saying by the private UNB news agency.
Ganga Kabodak is the oldest irrigation project in Bangladesh that began in the late sixties, but could not be fully implemented due to water scarcity.
Siddiqui's remarks were a departure from the earlier position of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party led by Khaleda Zia, which alleged that the treaty favoured India and pledged to review it if voted to power.
The official BSS news agency, quoting the Bangladesh chapter of the Joint River Commission, said the country received more water in January than its share indicated in the treaty.
The two countries recently held a meeting in Dhaka to measure water level on the Bangladesh side. They would meet again at Farakka on the Indian side later in February to check the flow of water.
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