Staff Reporter :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon the people of the country to refrain from lighting social events, community centres, shopping malls, shops, offices, courts and homes for decorative purposes in a bid to conserve electricity.
Seeking people’s cooperation, the Prime Minister said that her government is bound to carry out load shedding and limit electricity production as the fuel prices are continuously increasing globally due to Russia-Ukraine war, urging countrymen to comply with the situation.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating the country’s first university campus-based IT business incubator at the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) named Sheikh Kamal IT Business Incubator (SKIBI).
She virtually joined the programme held at CUET campus from her city’s official Ganabhaban residence while she also opened Sheikh Jamal Dormitory and Rosy Jamal Dormitory.
The prime minister noted that her government is currently giving a total subsidy of Tk 28000 crore to the power sector.
She said, “We have to provide a subsidy of Tk 25000 crore for LNG import to meet the demand of gas for making the power plants operational.”
She also said they have to give a subsidy of TK 84,000cr every year and allocation for the subsidy have also been made in the current budget, adding, “If we don’t reduce the subsidy, then, from where the government will get the money.”
“We have reached electricity to every house. But, now, we are compelled to execute load shedding and limit electricity generation as we couldn’t give (any more) subsidy in the power,” she said.
The prime minister said she asked authorities concerned to prepare a routine to accomplish area-wise specific time based load shedding across the country, urging the countrymen to save power in line with their best ability.
“Prepare a routine on how long load shedding will be executed in which area so the people can prepare themselves for that and their suffering can decrease this way,” she said.
She hoped that the countrymen would help the government in this regard realising the fact that the prices of everything including food, transportation, fertiliser, oil, LNG and diesel increased globally for Russia-Ukraine war and the situation is worsening as America-Europe imposed sanctions on Russia.
She also said the situation impacted on the whole world even on Bangladesh. But, the country is forwarding facing all these problems, she added.
According to a press release issued by the press wing of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, “Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has called upon the people of the country to refrain from lighting various social events, community centres, shopping malls, shops, offices, courts and homes in order to save electricity in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war and US-Europe economic sanctions.”
Earlier on Tuesday, she called upon all to be cautious in using electricity, make savings and grow more foods in view of the global trend of price spiral, power scarcity and looming food crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.
The Prime Minister has also hinted at imposing area-based specific-time load shedding to reduce the use of fuel electricity generation in the power plants.
Sheikh Hasina added that she is considering reducing electricity production for some time to save the fuel for producing power.
