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passed, but gas has not yet been supplied,” she said.

In reply, Iqbal Hassan said, “We have a gas crisis. We need to keep our power plants running, so we cannot provide gas there.”

“Once the gas situation improves, supply will be given. No drilling was done in the past 17 years. We have started drilling now. Hopefully, we will find gas, and then supply will be given to Ashuganj fertiliser and other factories,” he added.

After the statement, Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad reminded Iqbal Hassan of his earlier promise to ensure gas supply to the Ashuganj fertiliser company by May 1.

He advised the minister to be more cautious about making promises and suggested that ministers should properly “study” or review relevant issues before making any commitment in parliament.

Replying to a question from MP Faridul Kabir Talukdar of Jamalpur-4, Commerce Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir also told parliament that fertiliser factories cannot operate due to a lack of gas. He said the government was considering creating a separate gas network for fertiliser factories.

Iqbal Hassan said the country’s maximum daily electricity demand during summer and the irrigation season is about 18,000 megawatts.

Responding to a query from Jashore-4 lawmaker Mohammad Golam Rasul about prolonged load-shedding in rural areas, the minister said, “There is currently no shortage of electricity in Bangladesh. Temporary outages may occur due to storms, trees falling on lines, or faults in transmission and distribution lines, but these should not be called load-shedding.”

“Load-shedding means electricity being unavailable due to a shortage of supply. At present, Bangladesh has no such shortage,” he added.

Replying to MP Rashedul Islam Rashed of Sherpur-1, Iqbal Hassan said the government was prepared to face the possibility of a prolonged heatwave across South Asia, adding that some areas may have to face load-shedding.

Responding to another query from MP Kazi Rafiqul Islam of Bogura-1, the minister said although extending new electricity connections to char areas is costly, it is being planned gradually.

In reply to MP Shafiqul Islam of Patuakhali-2, the minister said preventing transformer theft across the long rural electricity network is difficult, and assured that delays in getting replacement transformers would be investigated.