Agitation for power in Sylhet, northern dists
In Sylhet, agitated people laid a siege to the office of Power Development Board Executive Engineer (Sylhet Division-III) in the city's Kodomtali area yesterday and ransacked the office and the executive engineer's room at about noon, our Staff Corespondent reported.
The Sylhet city and Sylhet Palli Bidyut Samity-1 and II, covering 12 upazilas of the district need 150 mw power but only 70 mw is supplied from the national grid, PDB sources said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. They said 180 mw power is produced in power stations
in greater Sylhet region.
Sylhet city requires 50 mw but it gets only 30 mw, keeping most of the areas without power for hours a day. At times, the supply declines to 25 mw, a PDB official admitted. Load shedding continues four to five hours a day in the city.
The suburban areas and those under Palli Bidyut Samity (PBS) are the worst sufferers.
PDB officials said they supply 38 mw to each PBS against a demand for 45 mw. But sources in Sylhet PBS-1 refuted the claim. We get only 20 to 24 mw against a demand for 45 mw, they said.
Sources in Sylhet PBS-II said they get only around 20 mw against the demand for 45 mw.
In last few days, the supply was around 15 mw, sources in both PBS-I and PBS-II said.
On August 1, a meeting was held at Sylhet PBS-I office to augment the supply at least during peak hours, but the situation remained unchanged, they said.
The meeting, held in presence of PDB chief engineer, Sylhet, decided that each of the five 33 KV feeders in Habiganj, Srimangal, Fenchuganj, Chhatak and Kumargaon will have two hours' load shedding during off- peak hours and half an hour during peak hours.
But, the decision can not be implemented due to influence of some CBA leaders of PDB, sources said.
Our Gaibandha Correspondent reports: Frequent power outage has virtually paralised life in greater Rangpur district and is severely affecting industries and agriculture.
On an average, people have to face power cut for 12 to 16 hours a day amid the scorching summer heart, triggering protests at several places in last few days.
Students are the worst suffers as power goes frequently in the first half of the night.
On Monday, Gaibandha district got only 5 mw power against the requirement of 25 mw, local PDB officials said. The 25 mw includes the demand by the Palli Bidyut Samity for supply to rural areas.
"We are undone. We face consumers' protest but can not do anything unless supply from the national grid is increased", said the PDB executive engineer in Gaibandha.
The Bogra grid station got only 61mw power on Monday against the requirement of 100 mw, including the demand from Naogaon and Joypurhat districts. Bogra Palli Bidyut Samity got only 10 mw against a requirement of 35 mw, he said.
Reports from Joypurhar said the Bidyut Grahak Sangram Committee on Monday launched an agitation programme. They barricaded Joypurhat-Naogaon and Joypurhat-Dinajpur roads, held a protest meeting and brought out a procession demanding smooth power supply.
The protest meeting was held at Joypurhat with Committee leader Principal Khwaja Shamsul Alam in the chair.
The speakers urged the PDB to stop load shedding immediately or to face tougher agitation.
Similar demonstrations for smooth power supply were also held in Bhurungamari upazila in Kurigram district on Monday.
In Haragach in Rangpur district, consumers have planned an indefinite hartal from August 18, if the supply does not improve by August 17.
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