Having burnt its fingers over the Teesta river water agreement with Bangladesh, that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stalled, the draft National Water Policy (NWP) envisages “consultative association with riparian states” while negotiating such deals over trans-boundary rivers. “Negotiations over sharing and management of water of international rivers should be done on a bilateral basis in consultative association with riparian states, keeping paramount national interest,” the policy says, asking the government to establish appropriate mechanisms at the Centre for this.