Surplus power with subsidy to quick rental burdening people

Dhaka, July 01 – Opposing surplus power generation by giving subsidy to rental power plants with public money, BNP on Tuesday alleged that the government is only “crushing” people imposing additional expenditure on them in the name of development.“The helpless middle-class people are screaming under the pressure of ghost electricity bills. They (govt) are saying 3,000 megawatts of surplus electricity is being generated more than the demand and most of which produced at quick-rental plants,” said BNP senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi.
He further said, “It means the government has to pay the rental power plants and buy electricity from them at higher prices giving subsidy with public money. So, what kind of development it is! Only people are being crushed by imposing additional expenditure on them.”
Speaking at a human-chain programme, the BNP leader said the government talks about the country’s development, but a mother sold her child in Manikganj for lack of food. “This is the country’s situation, and it can’t be continued for a long time.”
Dhaka North City unit BNP arranged the programme in front of BNP’s Nayapaltan central office protesting the Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2020 that was placed in Parliament last week to empower the BERC to make any change in tariff more than once in every financial year.
Rizvi said the government has been trying to stanch the freedom of speech and suppress BNP and dissidents by unleashing repression. “We would like to say people will come up with strong resistance against your repressive acts.”- UNB