Less than 40pc people get power before AL govt assumed office: Hasan

GBNews24 Desk//

Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud has said less than 40 per cent people used to get electricity facilities in the country before the Awami League government assumed office.

“Today, electricity reached doorsteps of cent percent people,” he told journalists while exchanging views on contemporary issues at his Secretariat office in Dhaka on Thursday (July 7).

Hasan Mahmud said though the electricity reached doorsteps, the call for using it maintaining austerity is not a mistake by any means.

“When we will not stay in room, it can never be a good thing to keep switches of lights or fans on,” he said.

He asked BNP which is making criticism over the premier’s call to try to remember the situation in power sector during their government tenure.

“What you have done. When people demanded electricity you shot people dead,” he said.

Referring to pictures published in several newspapers during BNP’s period, he mentioned a headline “People carry out vandalism without getting electricity, police open fire in Narsingdi”.

Urging the critics to take a look at global situation, he said the entire world is facing fuel crisis due to coronavirus pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict as both fuel price and carrying cost rose indiscriminately.

Hasan, also Awami League joint general secretary, said the Australian authorities called upon thousands of families to save electricity as the people of different provinces are experiencing severe load shedding for 10 to 18 hours a day.

Europe that never faces electricity cut is now also witnessing load shedding while the United Nations Security Council’s permanent member France is also calling upon its people to save electricity.

The minister said Bangladesh’s power sector is actually based on fuel as all coal-based power plants are yet to join in power generation completely.

That is why, the government gave Taka 28,000 crore subsidy in power sector and Taka 25,000 crore in energy sector, he mentioned.