Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said the people are now terrified whether petrol-bomb would be found from hurricane lamp procession called by BNP as protesters were shot dead for demanding electricity during BNP regime.
He said this while talking to journalists on political issues before joining a recitation ceremony arranged by cultural organization ‘Swanan’ at Bangla Academy here this afternoon.
Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary, said after the coronavirus pandemic, Europe-America is also rationing electricity due to impacts of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Developed countries are also facing severe difficulties in power generation as gas price has increased ten times at global market and oil price increased a record level, he said presenting the record of measures taken in developed nations in saving electricity.
Due to fuel crisis, people have been sent SMS calling upon them to save electricity in the USA, he said, adding that same call has been made to citizens in Japan and France in fear of power crisis.
Hasan said power supply has never been stopped in Germany after World War II. But this time people in Germany have also been asked to save electricity and power supply for heating water has been turned off in many cities there, he added.
New South Wales and Sydney in Australia are facing two-hour load shedding while India is witnessing the most severe power crisis now within the last six years, he said.
When Awami League came to power in 2009, only 40 percent people got electricity while now cent percent people have been brought under electricity coverage, he said.
The minister said the government gave Taka 53,000 crore or US$6million in power and energy sector in the last fiscal year (FY).
Electricity supply was never stopped for a second only in many developed countries but now measures for power savings and rationing have been taken there too, he said.
These measures have also been taken in Bangladesh and its people have also been called upon to save electricity, he said.
“Our country is now an isolated island from the world,” he said.
But BNP called for procession holding hurricane lamps centering the matter, he said.
“Now people are afraid of that whether petrol-bomb is come out from their hurricanes,” he said.
Referring to some incidents taken place during BNP regime, the minister said farmers were shot dead for protesting in demand of electricity in Kansat of Chapainawabganj during BNP’s government tenure.
During that period, ruling BNP’s chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman’s company only installed electric poles without providing electricity, he mentioned.
So, BNP has no ethical right to talk about electricity, he said.
About BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir’s comment over Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s remarks, Hasan said the premier generously stated that BNP’s processions and rallies won’t be obstructed and even if BNP goes to the prime minister’s official Ganabhaban residence, she will offer them tea.
He said Mirza Fakhrul Islam and other BNP leaders don’t realize generosity of the premier.
The minister said BNP chairperson earlier had responded indecently to premier’s invitation. “As BNP doesn’t understand the merit of invitation, I think there is no need to invite them,” he said.
Later, he addressed the recitation ceremony of poet Shyamsundar Sikder’s poems as the chief guest in Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad auditorium at Bangla Academy.
He underscored the need for increasing the practice of poem recitation for enriching people’s thoughts and innovativeness.
Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar addressed it as the special guest with Dr Chakresh Chakrabarty in the chair.
Recitation artiste Jayanto Chattopadhyay inaugurated the ceremony while Bangla Academy Director General Poet Muhammad Nurul Huda spoke as the chief discussant.
