Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
The government has launched a massive mass media campaign in favour of the Rampal power project in the wake of countrywide protest against it.
Power Division under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources came up with the move following a decision from the government high-ups.
It has already started bringing out special supplements in newspapers and airing advertisements in televisions featuring every aspect of the power project, and measures taken by the government to conserve ecosystem in and around the power plant as well as the Sundarbans. “The government has launched the campaign for countering the adverse propaganda commenced by a vested quarter and mobilizing a nation-wide positive public impression on the project,” State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid Bipu told The New Nation yesterday.
He said the government will also use social media for publicity favouring the power project. Besides, drama, documentary and talk shows containing positive expert opinions will be aired in the electronic media to create positive public opinions, he added.
Green activists and political parties have been urging the government to stop building the dirty coal-fired power plant in Rampal in close proximity to the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. The Sundarbans – a UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning southern Bangladesh and India – is a vast mangrove forest that is the home to the fabled Royal Bengal Tiger and rich in flora and fauna.
Bipu claimed Rampal power plant would not leave any adverse impact on the Sunderbans. “It will be built using most modern technology so that harmful carbon emission can be reduced to tolerable level after the coal burn. It will also help prevent any kind of ecological imbalance to the World Heritage Site,” he added.
“We hope the ongoing mass media campaign will drive out the negative perceptions from public minds regarding the environmental impacts and technologies of the power plant,” he noted.
Bangladesh-India friendship power company, a 50-50 joint venture of Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation, will implement the coal-fired power plant at Rampal, Bagerhat, some 14 kms off the Sunderbans.
In 2010, India’s National Thermal Power Corporation and the Bangladesh Power Development Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build the 1320-megawatt plant in Rampal.
