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Noted personalities urge govt

23 April 2010, 18:00 PM

METROPOLITAN

Staff Correspondent

Noted personalities have called on the government to formulate a comprehensive power policy to ensure 100 percent state ownership of the country's power sector in order to mitigate the excruciating power crisis. Power crisis cannot be resolved through profit-oriented private sector, which is dominated by foreign companies. So, there is no alternative to long-term, mid-term and short-term government policies to resolve the prevailing crisis, they added. They made the remarks at a discussion on 'Electricity crisis and functions' organised by Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) at its office in the city yesterday. The speakers stressed the need for strengthening different state-run organisations like Power Development Board (PDB), Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Petrobangla and appointing expert professionals in those organisations. Noted economist Prof Anu Mohammad underscored the importance of repairing the government power plants to resolve the nagging power shortage. He strongly criticised the government move to obtain rental power plants, saying that such initiative would make foreign companies profitable but would never benefit people. On coal mining, Prof Anu said the government could take coal gasification project in lieu of open-pit mining as pilot project. He urged the government to refrain from signing any export-oriented destructive agreement on energy, which might have boomerang effect on the nation. Convener of National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas-Mineral Resources, Electricity and Seaports engineer Sheikh Mohammad Shahidullah said power crisis has arisen due to massive corruption of the government officials and lack of patriotism in politicians. He also called on the government to concentrate on alternative energy sources, including solar and wind power, to meet its increasing demand. Justice Ghulam Rabbani criticised the government, saying that it only gives assurance to people, but does not take any executive step to cope with the crisis. Presenting a keynote paper, Prof Shamsul Alam of Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) placed some recommendations to this end. He recommended that the government pass a law titled Banning of Export of Mineral Resources Act-2010, continue extraction of coal from Barapukuria coalmine, do not sign any contract with foreign companies for gas exploration and extraction in plain lands, start gas exploration under Production Sharing Contract (PSC) model, which are yet to start its operations and import gas and coal for long-term energy security. CPB President Manzurul Ahsan Khan presided over the discussion, which was moderated by noted economist Prof MM Akash. Politburo member of Workers Party of Bangladesh Bimal Biswas, economist Dr Asaduzzaman and engineer BD Rahmatullah also spoke.