The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports is set to hold a grand rally in Khulna today protesting the construction of the 1320 MW Rampal coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans.
The rally is scheduled to begin at Shahid Hadis Park in Khulna city at 3:30pm.
“Many of our central leaders have already left the capital for Khulna to join the grand rally,” Ruhin Hossain Prince, a central leader of the committee, told UNB on Wednesday.
Earlier, the National Committee at a press conference in the city on Tuesday called upon the people of all walks of life to join the grand rally reiterating its opposition to the proposed power project.
The committee believes the project will invite a great environmental disaster to the whole country and the people of the coastal districts will be worst victims of it.
It claims all the scientific researches found the Rampal project will have a serious negative impact on the country’s environment and ecology and the main victims will be the coastal people and its biodiversity.
It said Bagerhat, Satkhira, Khulna, Barguna, Pirojpur, Jhalakati, Patuakhali, Bhola and Barisal will bear the brunt for the Rampal project most.
The committee leaders said the people will never accept Rampal project as 5 million people will directly be hit by the scheme as they will lose their livelihoods while 50 million will suffer indirectly by its risk.
They alleged that the government has been signing deals to purchase military arms which will increase the national debt while debt for Rampal power plant will destroy natural resources. These are nothing but huge deception and harsh joke with the people, they said.
The leaders said the government has been implementing the Rampal power plant in the name of resolving power crisis. But there are so many ways to resolve the crisis.
But the government ignores those ways and acts against the national interest by implementing the Rampal project, they said.
