The movement against the proposed India-Bangladesh joint venture coal-based power plant at Rampal near the Sundarbans is getting stronger day by day drawing wide public support.Former MP of Bagerhat-3 constituency Talukdar Abdul Khalek, also immediate past Mayor of Khulna City Corporation, played a vigorous role in implementing the much-hyped power plant project but after his defeat in the recent KCC mayoral election, the movement has become more strident.The National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports has been protesting against the implementation of the coal-based power plant in its bid to protect the Sundarbans’ ecosystem including arable land in the area.As part of their movement, the National Committee also called a long march programme towards Sundarbans for September 28.Environmentalists also took a firm stand against setting up of the power plant near the world’s largest mangrove considering its ecosystem.Local administration and public representatives said some influential people in the area opposed the project from the very beginning.The government, however, claimed that a modern technology-based power plant will built in the area and it will not affect the ecology of the Sundarbans and its surrounding areas.Meanwhile, the land filling work of the project is going on rapidly.Bangladesh Diesel Plant Limited (BDPL) under the Army management is doing the land filling work with 41 dredger machines. In the first phase, a total of 435 acres of land will be filled up with sand and then the construction work of the infrastructure will begin.Some people, who earlier opposed the project, are now engaged in the land filling work for earning money. They said the government has taken over their land for the construction of the power plant and they are now compelled to work here as there is no alternative source of income for them.Some people alleged that they lost their homesteads due to the construction of the project.Under a joint venture, Bangladesh and India signed three agreements on April 21 aiming to build the 1320 megawatt coal-based power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat district, close the Sundarbans.The three accords are: Power Purchase Agreement (PPA); Implementation Agreement (IA); and Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement (SJVA).According to the agreements, power will be produced from the Rampal plant by 2018.Earlier, Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) and Indian National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) signed a joint venture agreement on January 29 last year.Deputy Commissioner Bagerhat district Mohammad Shukur Ali said the country is moving ahead with industrialisation. As a power crisis is prevailing in the country, electricity production needs to be raised urgently.He also said that the Rampal power plant will not affect the environment of Bangladesh in any away.The DC informed that about 1834 acres of land in Shapmari Katakhali and Koigardaskathi in Hurka and Gourambha union in Rampal upazila have been acquired for the project and the compensation money for the land acquisition has been distributed among the affected people.Around 90 percent land filling work has been completed, he said, hoping that the rest will be completed soon.The DC also said that the lease holders of the land acquired for the project had been opposing the project’s implementation from the very beginning.Considering the power situation in the country, the government took up the project to construct the power plant in the area, he added.Rampal Union Parishad chairman Molla Abdur Rab said some influential people are involved in shrimp farming by grabbing several hundred bighas of khas land in the area.Chief coordinator of Save the Sundarbans Foundation Sheikh Faridul Islam said that some 100,000 people in the southern region are dependent on the Sundarbans directly or indirectly.If the power plant is set up at Rampal, the biodiversity and agriculture in the upazila will be seriously affected, he cautioned.Sheikh Farid mentioned that the power plant will emit about 6.10 million tons of coal waste, 3.2 million tons of ashes and 12 million tons of toxic mercury every year affecting 20 square kilometer of arable land in the area and rendering about 2,000 families homeless.President of the Agriculture Land Protection Sangram (action) Committee Sushanto Kumar Das said if the Rampal power plant is constructed, the world heritage and environment of the Sundarbans will face degradation.The committee also held several programmes demanding cancellation of the power plant project at the present site. -UNB, Bagerhat’
