Jatiya Party lawmakers on Sunday criticised the government for failing to stop power disruption, mismanagement in the banking sector and road accidents.
JP secretary general Mujibul Haque Chunnu standing on the point of order in Parliament said that the people of the country are facing many problems while now people are affected by two problems -- one is electricity.
“Now loadshedding in rural areas is 12 hours in 24 hours, sometimes 8 hours,” he said.
He said that there is 28,000 megawatts of electricity in the country, but where did the electricity go?
“Why not challenge the load-shedding in the village? People of the area have asked to invite the state minister for power, to stay for a day to see if there is load shedding,” he said.
Meanwhile, the chief whip of the opposition party requested the state minister for power to visit his area within the next two to four days.
Claiming that 41 per cent of the power plants operated on rent are sitting idle despite the capacity, Mujibul Haque said that Tk 26,000 crores of rent has been paid even for unproductive plants in the financial year 2022-23.
Referring to the indemnity for the rental and quick rental power plants, he said, “Please withdraw this agreement.”
He mentioned that All the ruling party lawmakers who are in rural areas may not be able to say now about the crisis.
About the initiative to increase the price of electricity on the ‘proposal of the IMF’, he said, “The minister calls the price increase a adjustment as he is ashamed to raise the price, so he says adjustment,”
Besides, JP senior co-chairman Anisul Islam Mahmud Bangladesh Bank has identified ten banks for merger to meet ‘IMF conditions’.
“The liability of these banks is Tk 84,000 crores. Out of which Tk 54,000 crores are defaulted loans. The names of these banks have come up over the past 10 years,” he said.
Mentioning the name of Basic Bank as an example, he said, these banks are not working properly. But Bangladesh Bank did not take any major steps.
“Today the IMF is taking action when it says so. Who will take responsibility? What will happen to those responsible for this? Bangladesh Bank did not say anything about that. If those responsible are not punished, we will return to the previous situation,” he said.
Anisul Islam Mahmud also said that instead of merging weak banks with good banks, it is necessary to see whether it is possible to merge weak banks and make new banks.
He said that the crisis should be overcome to activate the economy.
Apart from this, referring to the continuous road accidents in the country, Chunnu said that after most road accidents, it came into the forefront that the vehicles have no fitness or drivers have no driving license.
He advised the minister of the ministry concerned to take a strong stand on the matter and said that if old cars, unfit cars, three-wheelers are not plying on the roads, people would not kill like this.
MSH
