Fund shortage slows down rural electrification

Around 10,000 applicants from six upazilas of Khulna remain out of electrification although they are supposed to get electricity within one month after request under a five-year master plan of Khulna Pally Bidyut Samity starting in late 2012.
Officials of the Samity, which is supposed to give the power connections, have blamed a lack of fund from the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) for slowing down of the electrification process.
The 2012-2017 master plan envisages to provide electricity to 17,500 applicants, said Sheikh Zahid Hossain, an engineer of Dhaka-based private consultation firm Atlanta, with which the Samity prepared the plan. Around 7,500 of the applicants have already got electricity since December 2012 but the process of giving new connections has slowed because there is a shortage of adequate digital meters, hardware equipment, and electric poles, said Enamul Haque, assistant general manager (AGM) of the maintenance section at the Samity.
He said 6,500 applicants, who are yet to get electricity, were farmers and thus the worst sufferers because they could not operate low-cost electric motors for irrigation of their fields.
Sheikh Israfil, 52, a farmer at Sugandhi village in Digholia upazila, said he applied three months ago, but was still to get the connection.
He said he could not afford a diesel-run water pump like others to irrigate his small piece of land. “So, I have to depend on rain for irrigation.”
Echoing Israfil, another farmer Shamsul Haque, 50, of Samontosena village in Rupsha, said he applied two months ago.
On an average, a total of 200 applications are being submitted to the Samity offices at Dumuria, Senerbazar, Paikgachha and Batiaghata every day, according to official records.
The six upazilas under the master plan are Dumuria, Digholia, Terokhada, Rupsha, Batiaghata and Dakop, where the demand for electricity is on the rise. The master plan covers 50 villages of these upazilas.
When asked about the delay in the release of funds, Gonopati Biswas, executive engineer of BREB, Khulna, declined to comment.