Daylight saving time
Now it has become doubtful if we would ever go back to Bangladesh Standard Time (BST)! Initially the clocks were advanced by an hour for saving electric power and reduce load shedding. Reportedly, now it would be continued for easing Dhaka city traffic jams.
From newspaper reports it appears that the present system i.e. GMT+7 hours would continue indefinitely. It is no more Daylight Saving Time (DST) because these days instead of saving we are losing daylight time. One has to wonder as to why our scientific community especially Meteorologists, Geography teachers, Navigational experts, Cartographers etc are so silent about the issue. Of course, one honourable exception is Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal who had voiced his concern at least twice in a vernacular daily.
The question of saving power and reduction of load shedding by advancing the clock has to be considered from a practical point of view. Firstly, the concept of DST is not applicable to us because in our case the difference between summer and winter daylight hours is insignificant. Secondly, electric power cannot be saved and accumulated during morning lean periods for use during peak hours in the evening to avoid load shedding. Therefore, it is perhaps not right to say that hundreds of megawatts of power has been saved by advancing the clock. The only way to avoid load shedding during peak hour is to increase generation capacity.
Whatever has been achieved, if at all, by advancing the clock could be done simply by advancing the working hours. It has been done before with some degree of success. For example during Ayub regime working hours for most government offices were 07:30 to 14:00 hours. On Friday it was 07:30 to 12:30 hrs while Sunday was a holiday.
As pointed out by Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal we are located at a mean Longitude of about 90 degrees east. By the accepted international standard, for every degree of Longitude to the east of Greenwich Observatory, time is advanced by four (4) minutes. Therefore, our standard time is (90*4=360 minutes=6 hours) GMT+6 hours. We have a moral obligation to follow this time i.e. the Bangladesh Standard Time (BST).
In view of the above, the authorities may seriously consider reverting back to BST as soon as possible.
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