AS the summer heat is sweeping over the country and load shedding is back to previous levels, questions have been raised as to why the country is going under severe power outages when the government is claiming that it is producing electricity at an all time high level.
Load shedding has become a regular phenomenon now not only in the city but also throughout the countryside. Farmers are also facing troubles to irrigate their lands in the peak season adding anxieties to the rural population. Anxiety over frequent power outages is already causing unrest to every household as it is hitting families many times a day and over the night. It is equally disrupting the water supply to families while forcing many households to use power generators to run the lifts in multi-storied buildings and also to lift water from underground storages. Students appearing at the HSC examination are passing an uneasy time as they have to cut their reading routines and wait in despair. Meanwhile, the outbreak of diarrhoeal disease has been reported in the city and at many other places throughout the country while people keep wondering where is the record level of electricity production at this peak summer time?
We are ready to appreciate the good work of the government but if they are using the claim of producing record levels of power generation only to befool the nation, it is equally unacceptable and even condemnable. In fact the government is working now as we see, on a plan to buy as much electricity from rental and quick rental power plants run by party men at high cost while allowing Bangladesh to become a regular market of Indian electricity supply through the cross border power grid. We wonder why the government is not accelerating the setting up of big power plants in Bangladesh which produce huge volumes of electricity at low unit cost and this may in turn not only tremendously increase local power generation but also reduce the unit cost to reduce the effect of subsidies on the national exchequer. But as we see our every step is moving in the wrong direction apparently with a growing dependence on India for power supply at least in the short run.
The country is reportedly having a supply gap of over 2,000 MW at a time when the government is producing 6,500 MW against a demand for 8,000 MW that includes additional demand for irrigation.
We know that most industry now run their diesel run power generation plants to continue uninterrupted production to meet export schedules in time. Many business houses are also running their power plants without depending on the government. If the total demand is now compiled together with that of trade and industry, it may run over 9,000 MW but most estimates now remains confined to government supply areas such as house holds, ordinary trade and industry and the meeting of rural electricity demand. We hold the view that the government must prove that it is producing record levels of electricity so that frequent load shedding is not affecting people’s life. Mere publicity will not ameliorate people’s sufferings.
