Outcry at JS over outages

Lawmakers of the ruling grand alliance yesterday in parliament lambasted the state minister for power, energy and mineral resources in parliament for “unprecedented” power outages in their constituencies even after the irrigation season was over.
In the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, several legislators warned State Minister Enamul Huq that the Awami League-led grand alliance might face dire consequences at the next general elections if his ministry did not address people's sufferings.
Responding to criticism, Enamul said this summer had been hotter than in previous years. “That's why electricity demand remains high even at midnight as people in Dhaka and its outskirts use many air-conditioners. We are preparing a master plan to resolve the problem.”
Nani Gopal Mondal, Awami League MP from Dakop-Batiaghata (Khulna-1) constituency, launched a verbal attack on the state minister during the question hour saying that people in his area did not get electricity even at midnight.
“Why will there be load shedding at midnight when the irrigation season was over several weeks ago?” he questioned, adding, “It's really hard to reply to people when they express their anger to me due to regular power outages.”
AL lawmaker AK Mozammel Huq from Gazipur said his area got only 62 megawatt power against a demand of 163 MW.
Another AL MP, Shofiqul Islam from Jhenaidah-Harinakundu, said he was facing a very bad situation as the local people complained about frequent power outages.
Jatiya Party legislator Hafizuddin Ahmed said the grand alliance had only one year left to address the electricity crisis as the general elections were very near.
“In our electoral pledges, we had promised to resolve the power crisis. But the problem remains the same. If we fail to address the issue, it might lead the grand alliance to face a very bad result,” he warned.
Senior AL MP Shamsur Rahman Sherif from Pabna and Emaj Uddin Pramanik from Naogaon also expressed their concern over power outages in their constituencies.