Irrigation of croplands in the two districts are being affected due to short supply of the agri-inputs.

Our Staff Correspondent in Khulna reports: Over 3000 farmers barricaded about seen kilometres of the Khulna-Satkhira road from Atharomile to Chuknagar for over four hours from 10 in the morning demanding power, diesel and fertiliser.

This was the longest road barricade in the district in recent times, which created long snarl-ups of vehicles on both sides.

Angry farmers chanted slogans against the government and the Jamaat-e-Islami lawmaker from the area and threatened of tougher action if adequate supply of the agri-inputs is not made within 48 hours.

The barricade was withdrawn after the Jamaat lawmaker went to the spot and assured farmers of supplying agri-inputs.

Our Satkhira Correspondent reports: Demonstrations for power, diesel and fertiliser has become a regular phenomenon in the district with at least one such event taking place in any area. This has been going on for about 15 days since the power crisis deepened in the peak season of IRRI-Boro cultivation.

Yesterday, activists of Workers Party and its peasant front Khetmojur Samity, joined by farmers, marched streets in Satkhira town and staged a sit-in in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office.

The parties also barricaded the Satkhira-Kaliganj road for about an hour at noon and held a brief rally.

Satkhira is getting only 4 to 5 megawatt of power against the need for 33 megawatt a day, sources said.

Frequent power outage and voltage fluctuation are seriously affecting production in mills and factories, shrimp processing units and IRRI-Boro cultivation.

PDB sources said, it gets only 4 to 5 mw power, out of which it gives 2 mw to Rural Electrification Board (REB) for supply to rural areas.

Talking to this correspondent some factory owners and business leaders said they face load shedding of about 8 hours a day since beginning of summer.

Satkhira Chamber of Commerce and Industries President Sheikh Azhar Hossain said frequent load shedding and voltage fluctuation are damaging machinery in 39 fish processing plants, three cold storages and over 49 ice factories.

"Satkhira is the largest shrimp exporting area in the country earning a huge amount of foreign exchange every year. Shrimp export will be hampered this year as production in processing plants are interrupted due to frequent load shedding", he added.

President of Bangladesh Shrimp Cultivators Association, Dr. Aftabuzzaman, a former minister, said shrimp get rotten due to load shedding, incurring heavy losses to owners.

Director of Satkhira Ice and Cold Storage Ltd, Atiar Rahman said, cold storages now keep generators stand-by as PDB can not ensure smooth supply of electricity. This doubles the cost of preserving potato.

Explaining, he said one barrel of diesel is needed to keep a cold storage running for six hours with the help of a generator. This costs about Tk 6000 against Tk 3500 for electricity supplied by PDB.

Sundarban Textile Mills CBA President Abdullah Sardar said, the mill is incurring a loss of about Tk 75,000 a day as production is interrupted due to frequent load shedding.

A PDB official said, peak hour (5pm to 11pm) demand for electricity in the district is 18 mw but only one fifth of it is supplied from the National Grid.

"We have no alternative to load shedding", he said, adding power is distributed by the central load dispatch center and nothing can be done locally.

Besides load shedding, power supply is interrupted at times due to rehabilitation of distribution lines at places.

The power crisis is more in rural areas under Palli Bidyut Samity (REB), which gets only 2 megawatts against a demand for 15 megawatts during the on-going irrigation season, sources said.