Clock may go 1hr ahead June 16

The government may bring forward the Bangladesh Standard Time by one hour from June 16 if an inter-ministerial meeting decision to introduce daylight saving time (DST) is approved by the cabinet.
If the system is introduced, clocks will be adjusted forward by one hour. It means offices and businesses will open and close an hour early, which will affect people's habit. The system is useful as it saves energy with less artificial light being needed in the evening.
According to experts, with DST introduced around 250MW power can be optimised.
Many countries including the United States, Canada, most European countries, Brazil, and a few Middle-Eastern countries have introduced DST.
The inter-ministerial meeting was convened by the power, energy and mineral resources ministry at the secretariat yesterday to know opinions of different ministries about the proposal to introduce DST to conserve electricity by maximum use of daylight.
As per the proposal, the daylight saving system will be applied in the country from June 16 and continue up to September 30 this year.
"A consensus was made to advance the daytime by an hour from June 16," State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Shamsul Haque Tuku told reporters after the meeting. "We gave the proposal and sought opinions of different ministries," he added.
Representatives of the planning, industry, labour and manpower, foreign affairs, telecommunications, health, establishment, information, law, shipping, civil aviation and tourism, and education ministries responded in favour of the daylight saving proposal.
The meeting, however, left the matter for the cabinet to decide. If the cabinet does not approve, the DST will not be introduced this year--it will be introduced from April 1, 2010.
Following a move by Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission in the wake of nagging power crisis in recent months, the power and energy ministry decided to introduce DST to ensure maximum use of daylight and save electricity.
Tuku said they would take opinions of all ministries before placing the proposal before the cabinet. "If the proposal is approved, all will have to put backward their clocks by one hour from June because the ongoing Higher Secondary Certificate [HSC] examinations will conclude on May 28," he said.
He, however, avoided an answer when asked what implications of the decision to advance time will be on schoolchildren who will then have to get up an hour early in the morning.
Tuku said after some remedial measures the country yesterday generated the highest 4,110MW of electricity.
At present there is a daily demand for 5,000MW of electricity while around 3,800MW power is generated.