Prime minister Sheikh Hasina has instructed the authorities concerned to take measures to bring down load-shedding hours in rural areas.
The directives came at the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday, a day after Jatiya Party lawmakers in parliament heavily criticised the government for failing to stop power disruptions, particularly in rural areas that experienced up to 16 hours of load-shedding during the recent countrywide heatwave.
鈥榃e have directives from the prime minister, who is also holding the portfolio of the power, energy, and mineral resources minister, for uninterrupted power supply in rural areas as soon as possible,鈥� state minister for power, energy, and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid told reporters at his secretariat office after the cabinet meeting held at the Prime Minister鈥檚 Office.
鈥楾he issue has been discussed in parliament also. All, including parliament members and the prime minister herself, are generally aware of the situation,鈥� he added.
He, however, declined to share what was discussed about load-shedding in the cabinet meeting.聽
The junior minister claimed that they had to shed loads in some regions across the country, particularly in many rural areas of Bangladesh, as generation at some power plants, especially those based on oil, remained suspended.
鈥榃e have been observing the situation for over a month and are gradually resuming production at those power plants,鈥� Nasrul said, adding that they had a crisis of both money and fuel supply.
鈥楴ow we are in a better situation,鈥� he said.
Asked whether the city people would face more power outages for reducing load-shedding in rural areas, the state minister said that they were not in such a situation at present that they would have to increase power outages in the cities to supply power to rural areas.
鈥楢lready we have come to load-shedding between 500 megawatts and zero. It would improve further,鈥� he claimed. 聽
Presiding over the weekly cabinet meeting at her Tejgaon office, Sheikh Hasina also inquired about the fire at the world鈥檚 largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, which broke out in its East Zone on Saturday but could not be fully doused until Monday. 聽
鈥楾he home minister informed the cabinet that the fire service members and volunteers have already brought the fire under control, although it could not be doused completely until Monday,鈥� cabinet secretary Md Mahbub Hossain told a press briefing at the secretariat.
Since the fire in any jungle is of a different kind, the firefighters said that they would keep the affected area under observation for a few more days, the home minister told the cabinet, according to the cabinet secretary.
Monday鈥檚 cabinet sent back the draft Antiquities Bill, 2024, for some corrections, Mahbub Hossain said.
He said that the cabinet approved the draft of a bilateral agreement relating to flight operations between Bangladesh and Uzbekistan, which has remained suspended since 2005.
In 1993, direct flight operations between the two countries began through an agreement, the cabinet secretary said, adding that the new deal was made broader by incorporating the provision of 鈥�5th freedom鈥�, which means an airline from any of the two countries would be allowed to carry passengers from a third country.
JP secretary general Mujibul Haque Chunnu said in parliament on Sunday that load-shedding in rural areas is now eight hours to 12 hours in 24 hours.
Referring to at least five hours of load-shedding in his Kishoreganj constituency, Mujibul asked where the 28,000 megawatts of electricity that the government often boasts of had gone.
Bangladesh, having a generation capacity of 27,000 megawatts, could now produce around 15,000 megawatts against the daily maximum demand of around 17,000 megawatts due to the fuel crisis amid a shortage of dollars.
