Political parties blamed for power crisis

Former adviser to a caretaker government Akbar Ali Khan yesterday blamed all political parties for failure to improve the decade-old power crisis in the country.
"I see squabbles for chairs on the first row of parliament but do not see discussion relating to decisions and indecisions on power sector," added Akbar at a discussion at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in the city, organised by Centre for Sustainable Development (CFSD).
He was referring to BNP, the main opposition in parliament, which had earlier engaged in debates over allocation of chairs in parliament.
Akbar said a handful of people are in charge of taking important decisions regarding energy and power issues in a non-transparent manner.
"But we do not see any initiative to ensure transparency on the issue," he said, adding that researches, discussions and debates are also not taking place to take the right decision.
"The energy crisis is more of a political failure than an economic one. So our politicians should think anew," he said.
The former adviser made the comment at a time when the people under the national power grid are to suffer from 3 to 7 hours of loadshedding everyday, amid generation shortfall of 800 to 1,500 Megawatts (MW).
To cope with the power cuts, city dwellers as well as factories have to depend either on instant power supply (IPS) machines or on generators run by imported oil.
This year, the daily average power generation hovers between 3,800 to 4,000 MW against a demand as high as 5,200MW to 6,200 MW.
Businessmen said the dependence of factories and other businesses on generators take a toll on operational costs, resulting in a rise in overall production costs.
The persistent power crisis also dampens the atmosphere for investment in the economy, which, economists say, could grow at a higher pace than the present 5 to 6 percent per year if the power and energy crisis was solved.
The former adviser said Bangladesh's development is synonymous to the development of democracy and the presence of electricity.
Democracy is needed to solve economic and social problems, he added.
"For this, we do not need a perfect democracy like in the United Kingdom. If we can have a democracy like India, our problems will be solved. But unfortunately we are yet to do that," he added.
Expressing frustration, Akbar said the country's democratic environment is deteriorating day by day. "There is no sign of it to turn for the good. We would have been optimistic if it turned out positive,” he added.
Citing the tenure of BNP-led four-party alliance government between 2001-2006, he said 15 tenders were floated to set up large power plants but none were finalised.
He said today's burden of both decisions and indecisions will have to be borne in the next 25 to 50 years.
"We are yet to take any decision on whether to extract coal or not. Taking decisions on such issues requires discussion and here I hold politicians responsible," he said.
Centre for Policy Dialogue Executive Director Mustafizur Rahman and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies Research Director M Asaduzzaman spoke at the programme, moderated by CFSD Secretary General Mahfuz Ullah.