Staff Reporter :
The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will observe a half-day hartal on January 26 tomorrow in Dhaka in protest against the Rampal coal-fired power plant.
Prof Anu Mohammad, member- secretary of the committee, in a mass rally announced on November 26 after a general strike a seven-point programme including a half-day hartal on January 26 if their demands were not met.
He said “We have been working for the last seven years to protect the Sundarbans. But the government pays no heed to our demand. Now, we are constrained to call the strike.”
“This time the hartal from 6am to 2pm on the day will be a different hartal,” he said. “There will be no destruction, but creation.”
“The committee and the mass people will stage demonstration and protest rally countrywide on January 26,” he further said.
Anu Mohammad said, “It has been found in several researches that the project will be harmful for the nation. Had the government ever been concerned about the national interest, then they would have already stopped the project showing respect to the public sentiment.”
About 3.5 million people depend on the Sundarbans alone, he said: “If the world’s last remaining mangrove forest is destroyed, around 50 million people will be affected as there will be no natural protection for them.”
The government is adamant to implement the project, claiming that it will not harm the mangrove forest or the water species in the nearby Pashur River.
The national committee has been demanding the cancellation of the 1,320MW coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans in Rampal of Bagerhat.
Apart from Bangladeshis at home and abroad, the UNESCO has also demanded shifting of the project to any other location to protect the Sundarbans World Heritage site.
