PATNA, Sept. 4 -- With the Farakka Water Treaty, signed between India and Bangladesh in December 1996 and set to expire in December 2026, the Janata Dal (United), which is aggressively campaigning for the treaty's revamp (if renewed) to include Bihar's increased concerns in its ambit, has decided to launch a Nitish Samvad (Nitish Discourse), a drive to highlight the state's water concerns. Party's working president Sanjay Jha, a Rajya Sabha MP, raised the issue in Parliament during the Monsoon Session and External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar wrote to him that New Delhi would keep Bihar's interests in mind during negotiations over the treaty. The JD(U) has already started using clips of former Bihar CM and Rajya Sabha member Nitish Kumar's concerns about the Farakka ordeal for Bihar. "Any new treaty must keep Bihar's water needs up to 2050 in mind," said Jha. Neeraj Kumar, JD(U)'s official spokesperson, said that Jha would travel to 12 districts along the Ganga with state party president Umesh Singh Kushwaha to interact with locals and public representatives to raise their voice for protecting Bihar's rights. Jha and Kushwaha would travel to Buxar, Bhojpur, Saran, Patna, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Lakhisarai, Munger, Khagaria, Bhagalpur and Katihar for a comprehensive interaction on Bihar's rights to create awareness and mobilise public opinion about the treaty that is detrimental to several of key concerns of the Bihar state. Jha said that right from the very beginning, Nitish Kumar has been vocal about the injustice done to Bihar through the Farakka treaty and raised its adverse impact in the form of heavy siltation on various platforms. "Now that the treaty is set to expire in a few months, and the external affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar gave a positive response to my special mention in the Rajya Sabha regarding the non-renewal of the Farakka (Ganga) Water Treaty and the protection of Bihar's water interests, there is great hope that the ordeal for the state may lessen," said Jha. Jha said that the party has all along maintained that the "Farakka Water Treaty must not be renewed in its present form, keeping India's and Bihar's interests at the forefront." Chief minister Nitish Kumar raised the issue of Farakka dismantling with Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in 2016 following unprecedented flooding in Bihar. He cited studies to underline that the treaty was never in the interest of the Ganga and experts had even warned over five decades ago about its disastrous consequences. Party leaders feel that the "Farakka Discourse" could also be a new way of connecting with the people to address the important issue of flooding in Bihar, which mostly has its genesis in water bodies outside Bihar. "Thirty years of data shows the serious ecological and economic costs of the 1996 Indo-Bangladesh Ganga Water Treaty, particularly for Bihar. Now is the time to reverse the trend by allowing the treaty to lapse," said Jha....