Villagers in B'baria besiege power office

15 September 2009, 17:00 PM

Our Correspondent, B' baria

About 1,000 people of four villages under Sarail upazila yesterday laid siege to local PDB engineer's office for three hours from 11:00am protesting frequent power outage. The power-hungry people of Kuttapara, Sayedtula, Nizsarail and Chunta villages, led by local traders Faysal Ahmed and Aminul Islam, first took out a procession at the upazila headquarters and then surrounded PDB engineer Shawkat Ali's office. On receiving the news, Sarail Upazila Parishad Chairman Rafique Uddin Thakur rushed to the spot and assured the protesters of resolving power crisis at the villages within the next 10 days. The agitators withdrew the siege programme at around 2:00 on assurance of the chairman. When contacted, Engineer Shawkat Ali said he will try to ensure electricity supply to the four villages within the next 10 days. The villagers said they cannot keep the power pumps operational to supply water to their croplands due to frequent power outage. The demanded immediate solution to the problem.