DACCA: In keeping with the earlier announcements and despite protest from Pakistan, India is now reported to have completed arrangements for starting work soon on the Farraka Barrage “in full swing”.

The Farraka issue has always been of great concern to people here because of the disastrous impact it will have on the province’s economy and, therefore, the latest news from India has been received here with great shock.

It is feared that the construction of the Farraka will disturb the natural flow of the Ganges to East Pakistan — the lower riparian — and create water shortage in the lower Ganges delta covering about six million acres of land in seven districts of East Pakistan.

A Calcutta English daily, The Statesman, quoting Bengal government sources said yesterday that work on the Farraka Barrage would start in full swing after the Pujas. About 42 acres of land are being requisitioned for this purpose near Farraka in West Bengal, the paper said.

The decisions taken by the Farraka Barrage Control Board, which is presided over by Indian Deputy Minister for Irrigation and Power Jaisukhlal Hathi, is considered here as fully arbitrary because the exchange of data on the use of eastern rivers is still going on at the experts’ level.

The next meeting is likely to be held some time next month. The experts of Pakistan and India have been meeting since June 1960.

Sir Syed’s trowel used for foundation stone KARACHI: Education Minister Akhtar Husain yesterday laid the foundation stone of Sir Syed Girls College, Nazimabad, with the same trowel which was used 84 years ago to lay the cornerstone of the MAO College, Aligarh, which was founded by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. The trowel is now in the possession of Akbar Masud, the great grandson of Sir Syed.— Agencies