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Solving the power crisis

Electricity is something, which impacts the life of the people in one way or the other. Farmers will come out on the streets to demand electricity and face police brutalities, but they will not stop demanding electricity. We can hardly forget what happened in Kansat.

Shamsuddin Ahmed
IT appears that the government has its hands full with problems, some have been handed down and some have been created by the government itself. The electricity crisis is one problem that the BNP-J1 alliance government can be squarely blamed for because during its 5 year rule not a single mega-watt of electricity was added to the national grid although the country was reeling under severe power outage.
Much water has flown down the Padma dunng the last seven years or so and the molehill has become a mountain. Not only has the demand for electricity shot up, the chronic shortage of electricity and the concomitant sufferings of the people have also increased manifold.
It isn't good enough for the government to say that the power crisis was created by the BNP-JI. It is not good at all if the energy minister says that die power crisis can't be solved overnight and the people must have patience.
People whose children have to use candles to study at night, and businessmen who can't run their businesses for want of electricity, would not like to be told by the government how they should cope up with frequent power outages. They would like to know what the government is doing to mitigate their sufferings.
There is no electricity and water for the residents in this sprawling metropolitan city and in other urban areas. Power outage also means that gas stations stop supplying fuel to vehicles, resulting in long queues of transport around the gas stations.
While we know that the government has no magic wand to bring electricity to every house and factory, it must not sit back and do nothing -- as the last BNP- JI government did and got routed in the election.
Electricity is something, which impacts the life of the people in one way or the other. No government can get away with doing nothing to provide electricity where it is needed most. Farmers will come out on the streets to demand electricity and face police brutalities, but they will not stop demanding electricity. We can hardly forget what happened in Kansat.
The government must come out with a definite plan to augment power supply. It must have both short term as well as long term plans to increase the capacity to generate electricity and supply it all over the country. We can even import electricity from neighbouring countries to meet the crisis.
The government can divert funds from other sectors and start a crash program for augmenting the production capacity. There must be a target fixed for the quantum of electricity to be produced during the next five years, and the people must be told what the government is doing to alleviate peoples sufferings.
Most importantly, the people must be convinced that the government is doing what is doable. Otherwise, it will be difficult to prevent people's unrest and contain their outbursts on the streets, no matter how tough the home minister may sound about maintaining law and order.
The government has been in power for over three months. We have a full-fledged energy minister and an energy advisor on
top of him. Some plan should have come to light by now considering the importance of the energy sector.
At the moment, this government's priority seems to be to increase the fringe benefits and privileges of MPs. We hear of a government plan to buy 300 cars for MPs. We hear of MPs heading parliamentary standing committees being given the privilege of flying flags on their cars.
Are these the bounties and frills our politicians do politics for? In an impoverished country like ours, where the majority of our people live below the poverty line, where people can't have safe drinking water and live in darkness at night for want of electricity, it is a crime using state funds for the luxuries of a selected few in the name of politics.
In a democracy, those who run the government as elected representatives of the people will not have lights dazzling in their house at night and will not live in the luxury of an air conditioned room if the majority of the people they rule over suffer from power outage day in and day out.
Unfortunately for us, our elected rulers have behaved in the past and still behave as if they were the uncrowned kings and queens of this country. The sooner they change their attitude and the sooner this government wakes up to the reality vis ^ vis the on going power crisis and come up with a plan to solve it in the next five years, the better it will be for them and for the country.
Brig. Gen Shamsuddm Ahmed (retd ) is a former Military Secretary to the President