Published: 03:00 AM, 23 July 2018
Coal-gobbling bureaucracy stains govt's image
Power supply snapped from Barapukuria thermal plant
A report about the disappearance of coal worth 227 crore taka from Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Limited (BCMCL) in Dinajpur has recently shaken the country. This occurrence has triggered a tempest all over Bangladesh and the safety of the country's power and energy sectors have been thus plunged into grievous uncertainty.
Several former Chairmen of Petrobangla and a few higher officials from Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources have told The Asian Age on condition of anonymity that the inefficiency and irregularities of the present Chairman and Managing Director of BCMCL are absolutely responsible for the vanishing of coal from the site. BCMCL works in alliance with China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC).
Reportedly the top functionaries of CMC hold high influence on BCMCL as a result of which BCMCL often does not follow the directives from higher-ups. Engineer Habib Uddin Ahmed is currently Managing Director of BCMCL while Abul Mansur Md. Faizullah ndc is the organization's Chairman.
According to an agreement between the government, BCMCL and Power Development Board (PDB), each ton coal can be sold to PDB for 11,000/- (eleven thousand taka) while the cost would be 17,500/-(seventeen thousand five hundred taka) if sold to any client outside government organizations.
Sources associated with energy turfs have expressed the trepidation that BCMCL might have secretly sold coal of 227 crore taka to unidentified buyers to gobble up the money which is how the scam has happened.
Allegations further show that China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CMC) extracted each ton coal for 52 dollars since 2012 but it was raised to 84 dollars per ton in 2017 without any causes or clarifications. This is an immense wastage of money, concerned sources have said.
A lot of workers have complained about the misbehavior of Chinese officials of CMC. The Asian Age published a report on the discontent of employees in Barapukuria on 29 May 2018 titled "Barapukuria Coal Mine: Chinese firms fuel outrage".
Some analysts have remarked that the coal disappearance in Barapukuria perhaps could have been avoided if the authorities looked into the allegations about BCMCL and CMC right after the publication of that report in The Asian Age.
The economic development that the government achieved during last several years is directly interrelated with energy and power supply. Therefore, the mishap with the coal mine in Dinajpur puts the country's energy sector under blazing interrogative signs and it undermines the government's image too.
Even it has been complained by patriotic platforms that the disappearance of coal from BCMCL is most probably a sabotage by a faction of vested bureaucrats to embarrass the government at such a time while the next election is just round the corner.
These bureaucrats have been working with vicious motives to devastate the government's esteem and to spoil its success stories packing hands with anti-government quarters, political sources have stated.
Energy experts have meanwhile remarked that the measures taken following the coal scam in Barapukuria is not at all sufficient. Much tougher actions need to be initiated to rescue the country's energy sector from the grips of corrupted officials according to prominent citizens.
On the other hand, several northern districts including Rangpur, Panchagarh, Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Dinajpur and Thakurgaon are afraid of facing severe power failure as the authorities are supposed to close down the third and last unit of Barapukuria thermal power plant following the coal theft.
Northern Electric Supply Company Limited Chief Engineer (Rangpur region) Shahdat Hossain Sarker told media: "We are getting only 150MW from the plant for past one month after two of its three units were closed. Now the shortage has increased."
We fear more power cuts besides a shortage of voltage, he added.Disruption of power supply is most likely to ignite angry outburst among the inhabitants of these districts according to local sources.
It may be added that Congress lost to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Indian general election of 2014 for a number of reasons which include irregularities with coal blocks that became known as "Coalgate Scam" in India's political history.
----Fardaous Mobarak, AA
