Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary has called for a review of the India-Bangladesh Ganga treaty, saying the provision requiring the release of 1,500 cusecs of water during the lean period is affecting the state’s drinking water, irrigation and industrial requirements.
Choudhary, who also holds the water resources portfolio, made the demand at a Nitish Dialogue meeting in Samastipur on October 8. He argued that the water released under the treaty could instead support Bihar’s industrial development, drinking water supply and irrigation.
“The 1,500 cusecs of Ganga waters released otherwise under the treaty could be used for Bihar’s industrial development, for fulfilling drinking water needs and for irrigation purposes,” Choudhary said, according to the Times of India report.
He also said Bihar’s rivers contribute the maximum amount of water to the Ganga even as the state faces a water crisis. His remarks place the treaty’s lean-season release requirement within a wider dispute over how river water is allocated between downstream obligations and the needs of the state through which the river system flows.
The demand was raised during a political outreach programme organised by the Janata Dal (United), rather than through a formal treaty review notification or a government order. The Nitish Dialogue initiative is covering towns and cities along the Ganga and began in Buxar on September 5. It is scheduled to conclude in Katihar, with meetings already held in Saran and Vaishali.
JD(U) working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Union minister Ramnath Thakur and party state president Umesh Singh Kushwaha were among the speakers at the Samastipur meeting. Jha discussed the background of the treaty and described its implementation as discriminatory towards Bihar, while Thakur said the meetings reflected public concern within the party.
The reported demand highlights the administrative complexity of managing Ganga water across state and national boundaries. For Bihar, the issue is connected to the reliability of water available for urban drinking-water systems, irrigation and planned industrial activity. However, the report does not specify the legal process proposed for changing the treaty provision, the response of the Union government or Bangladesh, or any assessment of the volume of water currently available to Bihar during the lean period.
The Nitish Dialogue meetings will continue along the Ganga before concluding in Katihar. Any formal proposal to alter the 1,500-cusec provision, and any response from the governments involved in the treaty, will determine whether the demand moves beyond the political programme and into an institutional review process.
