Outages
JS body blasts power ministry for graft
Rakib Hasnet Suman
Lawmakers at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Undertakings yesterday blasted the power ministry for corruption and mismanagement that they held responsible for the ongoing power crisis in the country. High officials of the Power Development Board (PDB) and Rural Electrification Board (REB) found themselves helpless when the lawmakers of both the ruling BNP and main opposition Awami League (AL) jointly attacked them. Secretary in charge of Power Division ANH Akhter Hossain told the meeting that they have hardly anything to do when the demand is higher than the production. He, however, expressed optimism about improving the situation within two to three weeks when a number of power plants would resume production. Salauddin Ahmed, ruling BNP lawmaker from Demra, blamed the PDB, Desa and Desco for their failure. "I was embarrassed before the people in my area due to your failure. It's not a lawmaker's duty to provide power," said Salauddin, who faced public wrath recently at Demra for power and water crises. Another BNP lawmaker Rustam Ali Farazi also accused the power ministry officials, saying, "You have no effective plan for power. You have totally failed and all of you are corrupt." Urging the power ministry officials to properly work to improve the situation, BNP lawmaker and Whip Rezaul Bari Dina said, "People don't want to see your plans, they want to see work." AL lawmaker Faruk Khan said the government has totally failed to ensure minimum supply of power due to corruption and mismanagement. Load management plan is not a remedy and the government should work for more power generation, the opposition lawmaker said. Faruk Khan suggested that the government think about the nuclear power generation and using windmills. The meeting was informed that the PDB is now incurring 24 per cent systems loss while the committee members asked for its reduction to 19 per cent soon. "We will review the systems loss after a month to see what measures the Power Division has taken following the committee directions," Abdul Alim, chairman of the committee, told reporters after the meeting. "We have recommended load shedding during a certain time for a certain area daily instead of frequent power cuts," he said. The PDB officials gave assurance of continuous power supply during the World Cup Football that kicks off on June 9, he added. The PDB chairman told the meeting that they would circulate weekly load shedding schedule for different areas, a meeting source said.
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