Power shortage
An English daily correspondent's optimistic front page news (Sept:8) appears to be appeasing the authorities; rather than being pragmatic facts!
He/she writes, "Power outage to continue this Ramadan ". However to Represent the reality, it should have been "power outages to deteriorate during Ramadan ", which I am sure all the readers will agree with.
The simple rationale is that during the month of Ramadan the period of most household activities is around Iftar time; when lights are needed. Further, the Tarabi prayers also fall during the maximum demand period for power. Finally, during the month of Ramadan, the very nature of household activities increases the need for more lighting during evenings and nights.
From the twentieth day of Ramadan the Eid shopping tempo picks up; with more lighting and illumination in shops and bazars during the maximum demand period of 6:00 to 10:pm. The scenario during the middle of October is bound to be worse; when Eid shopping will overlap with Puja shopping and Puja decorations. With both the major communities on a holiday mood; particularly in the evenings, power demand is bound to shoot up beyond anticipation!
Given this situation, no amount of asking and tasking by the power agencies and their bosses will give more power. May be we should float a tender for the immortal "Aladin's Lamp"; the "Cape of Good (last) Hope" and the only chance-- if dreams could be realities! Power management in Bangladesh is based on the simple fact of "Robbing Peter to pay Paul". In this case "Peter" is nondescript areas and "Paul" is cities! The first "apostle" to get paid is Dhaka followed by Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet and then Rajshahi; where unfortunately no Rajas live now Asking mosques to have their own power generators, or even hiring these during Ramadan is a really big ask! As far as I am aware many (if not all) mosques in Dhaka get their electricity free! The CTG should look into it; and without fear or favour ask the mosques to pay for their power; may be at 30 to 40 percent discount, so that at least part of the variable cost is recovered.
In my opinion, free power for mosques is not fair; unless the same facilities are extended to mandirs and churches. This policy matter should be sorted out by the CTG now, to take care of this anomaly, which in my opinion, goes against the spirit of equality for all.
Enough power for all: easier said than done! Even our CTG has given tall promises with timeframes; which I questioned in these columns earlier last month. From approval; to power at the grid; a time frame of thirty months will be fantastic; if achieved! One only wonders; why our "powers to be" do not connect up all in-house generators; both full-time or stand-by, and put it parallel to the grid. This will be a cheaper, quicker and modular approach to substantially increase all time grid power availability by around 100MW. But who will bell the cat, if not the CTG; which can act without fear or favour, or any political baggage attached. The time for this is now!
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