Perennial power shortage

The BNP-led government on assumption of power in 2001 had blamed the former AL government for its failure to add any extra megawatt to the national grid. But we want to ask the present government, what have they done to turn the situation around, after more than three years in power? What has gone wrong with a government having had a strong two-thirds majority mandate that it could not fulfil a simple pledge for steadying the supply of electricity all the year round.

As it is, our consumption of electricity is among the lowest in the world. We are hard put to meet the current demand of power computed at a lower threshold, but if we are to visualise the projected requirement keeping in view the millenium goal for halving poverty by 2015, the frustration becomes overwhelming.

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Energy is a fundamental infrastructure that cannot be trifled with except to the peril of our national development efforts. We never tire of bragging about the investment climate in the country and the incentives offered by us to attract FDIs. Not so long ago, the World Bank had cited, not corruption and other hurdles but erratic power supply as the chief obstacle to investment in Bangladesh. We do not want explanations for the current situation, we are interested in results only.