March to Dhaka on November 24
The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports will hold “Cholo, Cholo, Dhaka Cholo (March to Dhaka)” programme on November 24 if the government does not cancel the controversial Rampal power project.
The committee will also stage a grand rally in the capital on November 26 to press for scrapping the project of 1,320 megawatt coal-fired power station in Rampal upazila of Bagerhat.
Prof Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the committee, announced the programmes during a daylong sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar yesterday.
“We hope people from all strata of life and from across the country will start marching to Dhaka on November 24. It will take one or two days to come to the capital from different parts of the country. Then we will hold a grand rally on November 26,” Prof Anu Muhammad told The Daily Star later at night.
The venue of the grand rally will be settled latter, he said. “We hope a large number of people will join the programmes because it is a matter of national interest.”
A Bangladesh-India joint venture company signed an agreement with India's state-run Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd on July 12, paving the way for construction of the much-debated power plant.
The construction is set to start within three to four months and the plant is scheduled to go into commercial production by July 2019.
Environmentalists have been up in arms about the power plant because of its proximity to the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and a Unesco World Heritage Site.
The project poses significant social and environmental risks, according to Bank Track, a Netherlands-based coalition of organisations “targeting the operations and investments of private sector banks and their effect on people and the planet”.
In an analysis, Bank Track said serious deficiencies in project design, planning and implementation render the project non-compliant with the minimum social and environmental standards and the International Finance Corporation's (IFC's) performance standards.
Green activists are concerned that the plant would cause its environmental degradation from increased ship traffic, dredging, and air and water pollution.
Coal-fired thermal power plants belch toxic gases that could impact wildlife and human health and forest quality in the neighbourhood, leading the country's many environmentalists to continue their call to scrap the plant.
The Rampal plant is located about 14 kilometres off the Sundarbans and is estimated to burn 4.72 million tonnes of imported coal a year.
The national committee's leaflets, circulated at the sit-in yesterday, claimed coal burnt annually for the plant will produce around 8 lakh tonnes of ashes and other toxic substances.
Besides, coal-laden vessels will frequently operate through the Sundarbans daily. All these things will endanger the ecological diversity of the mangrove forest.
However, senior officials from both Bangladesh and India have contended that the coal plants will have little or no impact on the forest, saying they will use the latest technology to mitigate pollution and are following stringent environmental guidelines, Bangladeshi laws and international standards.
At the sit-in, Prof Anu Muhammad said no expert, except for the hired ones, will agree that the plant will not damage the Sundarbans.
The committee will hold rallies and conventions at different divisional cities and district headquarters throughout the next three months while question-and-answer sessions will be held at universities, he said.
It will soon stage a rally in front of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka and will submit an open letter to the Indian prime mister, expressing its concern over the project.
The committee is communicating with Indian rights and environmental activists, who are expected to hold a similar demonstration in front of the Bangladesh High Commission in Delhi and submit an open letter to the prime minister of Bangladesh over the same issue.
Efforts are on to hold the two programmes on the two sides on the same date, said the organisers.
Besides, there will be mass signature campaigns in rural areas to create public awareness about the project.
The committee will also hold meetings and rallies across the country marking one decade of Phulbari uprising on August 26.
Three men were shot dead and over 200 people injured on August 26, 2006 when law enforcers opened fire at a demonstration against an open-pit mining project at Phulbari in Dinajpur.
Addressing yesterday's sit-in, Prof Serajul Islam Chowdhury said the common people must be made aware of the adverse effect of the Rampal project and they should be incorporated with the movement.
“The Sundarbans helps us in many ways. It protects us from natural calamities, storms ... now a monster is out to eat up the forest.”
This monster is capitalism, said the eminent educationalist and author.
Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) President Mujahidul Islam Selim said, “Our movement is not against electricity generation. Our movement is to protect the Sundarbans.”
Convener of the committee, engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, and many other rights activists and politicians spoke at the protest programme.
Over a dozen political and socio-cultural organisations, including Sarbopran Sangskritik Shakti, Shushashoner Jannoy Nagorik (Shujan), Gonosonghoti Andolon and Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (BSD) joined the sit-in.
Cultural activists staged drama and rendered songs. Protesters marching in processions came to the venue, carrying banners and placards and chanting slogans against the Rampal project.
Meanwhile, Chittagong chapter of the national committee also held a protest programme at the city's Studio Theatre to press home the same demand, reports our correspondent.
Earlier, the national committee held two long marches -- one from Dhaka to Khulna in March this year and another from Dhaka to Rampal in September 2013 -- protesting the project.
After the two long marches and different other programmes, the anti-Rampal plant movement has got momentum, said engineer Kallol Mustafa, a member of the national committee and an activist.
And yesterday's sit-in has made the movement more vibrant, he told this newspaper, adding, “People from outside the capital have joined this programme or expressed solidarity.
“As Dhaka is the centre of making decisions regarding the plant, there should be a large-scale programme here involving people from every corner of the country.”
“Public opinion on the government decision to build the power plant will be reflected through the Dhaka march programme.”
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