A glimner of light after a month of darkness

Shops at Baitul Mukarram now depend on generators.. PHOTO: Syed Zakir Hossain

Shopkeepers at the Baitul Mukarram market saw a glimmer of light after a month of darkness, as the Islamic Foundation Bangladesh will replace the burnt-out transformer and cables that caused an electricity failure from February 2.

"An ultimatum declared at a press conference got the foundation moving and efforts to replace the 630KVA transformer with a 1250KVA one and 1,400 metres of cable are underway," said Gulzar Ahmed, president of the Baitul Mukarram business group.

The association of shop owners, Dhaka Electricity Supply Authority (Desa) and the foundation made a tripartite contract on June 25, 1998 and agreed that the shop owners would directly pay Desa the utility bills. The foundation on its part agreed to install a new transformer and draw a new line of cables.

"The shop owners cleared all bills in keeping with the contract, but the foundation did not install any transformer nor did it increase its capacity," claimed Enamul Haq, general secretary of the business group.

The foundation in a press release blamed the transformer and cable damage on illegal connections and excessive use of power by shop owners.

"Desa supplied 904 kilowatts of electricity to the market when the capacity of the transformer was 1064 kilowatts. The electricity consumption sometimes rose to 1394 kilowatts," the press release said.

The shop owners said the contract was signed to bolster the transformer's capacity as the electricity demand was increasing.

The businesspeople complained that sales went slack, as people do not walk into shops without electricity.

"We are losing customers as modern shopping malls have come up. The electricity failure has made things worse," Enamul said.

"No measures have been taken to improve the situation since the market management came under the Islamic Foundation in 1975. The management tends to increase the rent by the year," he said.

Although the foundation increased the rents from Tk 7 to Tk 9 per square feet, 295 shop owners did not agree on the hiked rent.

"The foundation can't increase rent without developing facilities for us. They are showing dues according to their new rent which we did not agree on," Enamul said.

"We are paying about Tk 80 lakh in rent a month to the foundation for the premises. We don't know what they do with the money. The transformer will cost them only Tk 1 crore which is less than two months' rent," a shop owner said.

The business leaders also said the foundation wanted two more days to install the transformer but are sceptical about its role.