The UPA Government, which had earlier faced a major embarrassment from its ally Trinamool Congress on the Teesta water agreement, has renewed efforts to convince Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to sign the pact with Bangladesh on grounds that it is beneficial to both countries. The Water Resources Development Ministry has put up senior officials on the job of collecting documents to get the unpredictable Banerjee to agree on the agreement in the next four months — before election process starts in Bangladesh. “We are collecting all evidence and are hopeful of proving to the Bengal CM that the agreement is beneficial for the State,” said a source on Friday. Stressing that signing the agreement was crucial for getting a World Bank loan, they said this fund could be used to develop a canal system to optimally utilise the available water, most of which goes waste at present. Admitting that Banerjee has an objection to the 50:50 sharing of water, sources said once the agreement came into operation, India would effectively get more than half of the Teesta river water, as Bangladesh has, for the first time, agreed to measure water flowing to that country and also to account for the water recharged in the plains there. However, the difficult task is to convince Banerjee, who had last time refused to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to Dhaka, causing much diplomatic embarrassment to India. The Centre had sent Secretary of the Minister to Kolkata recently to hold official talks while senior UPA Ministers are likely to broach the subject with Banerjee at a suitable time.