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Ensure smooth power supply for irrigation

IS body asks ministry

Staff Correspondent
A parliamentary body yesterday asked the power, energy and mineral resources ministry to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity for irrigation, which is being hampered due to acute power crisis.
The parliamentary standing committee on power, energy and mineral resources ministry also asked the ministry to engage lawmakers and upazila parishad chairmen to monitor the supply of power for irrigation.
The government has already decided to ensure uninterrupted supply of power for irrigation from 11:00pm to 7:00am every day. But ruling AL lawmakers in parliament have
already said farmers are not getting uninterrupted power as per the government measure
The current demand of power for irrigation across the country is 2,100 MW but farmers are not getting adequate power to run the pumps for irrigation.
State Minister for Power Shamsul Haque Tuku and officials of his ministry' did not disclose to reporters how much electricity they are supplying for irrigation.
The power ministry officials, however, said the country' has a shortage ot 1,200 MW power against its current demand and they are laying emphasis on load management to ensure supply of power for irrigation.
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Talking to reporters after the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, the state minister said they are trying to ensure uninterrupted supply of power for irrigation.
At the meeting, committee members also urged the ministry to take steps to ensure shutdown of the shopping malls in the cities by 8:00pm for the sake of irrigation.
Contacted by The Daily Star over telephone, committee member and AL lawmaker Abdul Matin Khasru said they urged the ministry to ensure uninterrupted supply of power for irrigation at any cost
Meanwhile, a press release issued by parliament secretariat last night said committee chief Major General (retd) Subid Ali Bhuiyan directed the power
ministry officials to come up with proposals in the next meeting for increasing generation of power.
Another parliamentary body on finance ministry yesterday at its meeting also emphasised the need to take immediate measures to improve the power situation as it observed that farmers are facing difficulties to run pumps for irrigation.
The parliamentary standing committee on finance ministry also reviewed the country’s macro economic scenario and discussed the way of reducing interest rate of bank loans.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Committee Chairman AHM Mustafa Kamal said the committee asked Bangladesh Bank to work on how to reduce interest rate of bank loans.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on education ministry yesterday at a meeting asked the officials concerned to look into the legal side whether the provision of the Bangladesh University of Professionals Bill contradicts thelawoftheland.
A section of the bill proposed that the language of education in the university would be English. The committee will scrutinise the bill at its coming meeting.
The committee, however, discussed different circulars issued by the immediate past caretaker government curtailing the power of people's representatives regarding supervising educational institutions. It observed that the circulars would be repealed.