A national committee of citizens for safeguarding oil, gas and natural resources on Saturday asked the government to cancel its agreements with the suppliers from the so called quick rental power producers and ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity to the consumers across the country.
Speaking at a protest rally in the city the leaders of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports asked the government to strengthen the state owned system of power generation to end the countrywide power supply crisis.
The committee convener Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah said that the government allowed the so called quick rental power plant owners to make quick money placing a huge financial burden on the nation.
He said that it was completely acceptable that the government had to increase price of electricity several times in recent months to give Tk 32 thousand crore in subsidy to the quick rental power plant owners in the current fiscal.
Extreme disappointment over frequent power outage led many protesters to join a protest march, organized by the committee, from in front of the National Museum, the venue of the rally, to New Market to express their disgust over the deteriorating power supply situation.
The protesters held the demonstrations to drum up support for the May 7
demonstrations in front of PDB offices across the
country.
Shaheedullah said the government must solve the power supply crisis by using gas and coal for power generation, enacting a law to ban export of mineral resources, repairing old power plants and strengthening Pertobangla and BAPEX for exploration and extraction of oil and gas.
Committee leader M Inamul Haque asked the government to cancel the deal under which two offshore gas blocks were allocated to the American company Conoco Phillips.
He also asked the government to refrain from signing any new deal with foreign companies for extraction of hydrocarbon from offshore gas blocks.
Committee leader Bazlur Rashid Firoz said government must ensure uninterrupted supply of power to consumers across the country.
Committee leader Ragib Ahsan Munna demanded saving the energy sector from the hands of corrupt officials.
Chaired by the committee leader Abu Bakar Ripon, the rally was addressed, among others by Khan Asaduzzaman Masum and Babul Biswas.
National committee leaders Abdus Salam, Zonayed Saki, Subal Sarker, Shahidul Islam Sobuj and others took part in the programme.