Staff Reporter :
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) detected irregularities in land acquisition process for the Rampal and the Matarbari Power Plants and in the payment of compensation money to the land owners.
It says the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) mainly focused on the advantages of the projects while selecting locations rather than environmental and socio-economic risks of people.
The TIB conducted the study during November 2014-February 2015 and revealed it at a press conference held in its Dhanmondi’s head office in the capital on Thursday.
TIB Chairperson Sultana Kamal presided while its Executive Director Dr Iftekharuzzaman moderated it.
TIB Deputy Programme Manager (research and policy) Mohammad Hossain placed the findings of the study, ‘Rampal and Matarbari Power Plant Projects: Good Governance Challenges in Land acquisition
and EIAs’ while Deputy Executive Director Dr Sumaiya Khayer and Director of Research and Policy Department Md Rafiqul Hasan also spoke on the occassion.
The study claimed although Rampal and Matarbari are not industrial zones or open areas, the Department of Environment (DoE) gave environmental clearance violating its rules to implement the projects. Suggestions from the Forest Department were not taken about the Rampal power plant.
The Tk 14,510 crore-Rampal power plant project will be constructed in Bagerhat district, only 14 kilometers from the Sundarbans, while Tk-36,000 crore Matarbari project will be implemented at Moheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar district, 15 kilometers away from the Sonadia Island. Both Sundarbans and Sonadia are environmentally critical areas.
Besides, the TIB report said, public opinion was not taken into account during the EIA on Rampal plant project carried out by the Dhaka-based Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) while local people could not give their opinion during the EIA on Matarbari project conducted by Tokyo Electric Services Company.
About the corruption in land acquisition for both the power projects, the TIB study reveals that local people who are eligible to get compensation have to provide 3-10 percent of the total compensation money in advance as bribe to have their compensation files processed.
In Matarbari project, local politicians and influential people along with local administration were involved in irregularities and corruption in selection and distribution of the compensation money.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman said all the pre-conditions to build a power plant were violated in the Rampal and the Matarbari Power Plants. Corruption was found at every level of the projects.
“The coal-based power plant is being stopped all over the world. But new power plant is being built in Bangladesh. The power plants impact badly on environment and climate change,” he said.
Iftekharuzzaman said, environmental and socioeconomic consequences were not considered during the EIAs of both projects since the EIAs were not conducted following international standard.
About compensation to local people, he said most of the real victims of the power plant projects were deprived of compensation money, but many influential people were compensated more than what they deserved.
Saying that TIB is not against installation of coal-fired power plants, Dr Iftekhar urged the government to set a specific timeframe so that coal-based plants could be shut down after a certain period as this technology emits carbon more polluting the environment. He also asked the government to go for renewable energy to meet the country’s future demand.
Iftekharuzzaman also alleged that the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) gave money to set up the Matarbari Power Plant from the climate fund, which is totally unethical.
