Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with Arjun Munda at Writers’ Buildings on Thursday. Picture by Aranya Sen

Calcutta, July 21: The two chief ministers met and decided to meet again. Hardly an unusual script.

But when the Jharkhand chief minister Arjun Munda today called on Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee here, he sprang a surprise by suggesting that they both call on the Prime Minister together. Bhattacharjee promptly agreed to seek Manmohan Singh’s intervention over issues of mutual concern.

The states, meanwhile, agreed to help each other. Bengal offered to share water and power with its neighbour while Jharkhand indicated its willingness to allow industries in Bengal access to its minerals.

“Time has come for the eastern states to work in tandem and this was a good beginning,” Munda told The Telegraph. Bhattacharjee was more forthcoming. “I won’t go into details, but we want Jharkhand to have its share of investment. The movement of iron-ore requires clearance from the Union ministries of steel, mines and also forests and environment. Therefore, he (Munda) has suggested that we approach the Prime Minister directly,” he revealed after the meeting.

Munda told reporters that Jharkhand would do whatever it could for Bengal but only after its own requirements are met. The Jharkhand government has been chafing at the refusal of the environment ministry to clear industrial projects in the state, on the grounds that they would deplete forest-cover. Munda has been pointing out that Jharkhand has one of the highest forest-covers in the country and wondering why he is expected to pay a penalty for it.

Bhattacharjee offered a water-sharing agreement with Jharkhand. During the meeting, Munda told him that Jharkhand was losing out on water due to an old agreement with Bengal.

“He has told me that his state has many rivers but not much water. We will have to share some water from our dams built on the Bengal-Jharkhand border. We will give them their due and officials of the irrigation department from both states will meet to sort out the issue,” he said.

The Bengal chief minister also indicated that since the state is producing surplus power, it could bail out Jharkhand in the short run.

Bhattacharjee, however, did not allow his guest to field inconvenient questions regarding Jharkhand’s initial refusal to allow lease for mining iron-ore to the Jindals interested in setting up a steel plant at Kharagpur. Munda later indicated that his government would not stand in the way of the project. Asked to explain his change of heart, he enigmatically replied, “I will not say anything now.”

Maoists and cross-border infiltration also figured in the discussion. The CPM’s Bhattacharjee and the BJP’s Munda agreed to initiate joint action against “Bangladeshi infiltrators” and the resurgence of Maoists.