Author: UNI, PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: February 21, 2003
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/01212210.htm
The Bangladesh Government has denied
over flying facilities to Defence Minister George Fernandes and BJP National
president M Venkaiah Naidu.
Confirming this, M V Naidu said
today that they would now have to take a longer route to attend election
rallies at Tura in Meghalaya and Dharmanagar in Tripura on Sunday.
They had, earlier, sought permission
from the Bangladesh government to overfly from Tura to Dharmanagar.
However, Bangladesh formally informed
Indian authorities about their inability to grant the permission to the
leaders. They, however, did not specify any reason.
Both are on a hurricane tour of
the North East, covering Nagaland, Tripura and Meghalaya in three days.
"If we were allowed to overfly,
we could have saved 35 to 40 minutes." he said.
They would fly in an Indian Air
Force helicopter and take the aerial route along the international boundary
touching Meghalaya, Assam and eventually Tripura.
7 unresolved issues with India
Meanwhile, Bangladesh claimed to
have seven unresolved issues with India including demarcation of the common
boundary, handing of enclaves, bridging trade gap and sharing of waters
of common rivers.
"Demarcation of 6.5 km out of over
4 thousand km of common boundary between the two countries, handing of
enclaves, exchange of areas within enclaves having adverse possession,
demarcation of maritime boundary, ownership of Talpatty (New Moore) island
in Bay of Bengal, bridging trade gap and sharing of waters of common rivers,"
Bangladesh Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan told the country's Parliament.
In a written reply to a question
from a fundamentalist Jammat-e- Islami member, the Foreign Minister said
exchange of adverse possession of lands in the enclaves has to be made
on the basis of Mujib-Indira agreement.
