On 6, March 2025, Officials of India and Bangladesh held the 86th meeting of the Joint River Commission in Kolkata where they discussed the pros and cons of renewing the 30-year-old Ganges water-sharing treaty which comes up for renewal next year.

This was the first meeting of the JRC on the sharing of the trans-border river since the change of government in Bangladesh on August 5 last year.

The meeting formed a technical committee and set up broad parameters on which the future of the Ganges water-sharing treaty, signed in December 1996, would depend, sources in both sides said.

• The Bangladesh delegation was led by Md Abul Hossen, a member of JRC.
• The technical committee comprising hydrology experts from both sides will meet tomorrow to carry forward the discussions.
• The JRC meeting took place after the officials and experts carried out a survey for two days of the current status of the flow in the Ganges at Farakka.
• The Ganga Water Treaty, signed in 1996 between Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina, is set to expire next year after a 30-year term. Jyoti Basu was the West Bengal Chief Minister at that time.