Focus on renewables to solve energy crisis: Fakhrul

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Monday accused the government of using the energy sector as a tool of corruption and said that Bangladesh should focus on renewables in the coming days to solve the energy crisis.

At a seminar titled "Corruption is the source of energy crisis", he also lambasted the government for its negligence which led to the death of five people after a Bus Rapid Transit girder fell on their car in the capital recently.

Expressing solidarity with the ongoing movement of tea workers in Sylhet, he said the government is claiming that the country's per capita income has risen to $2,800, but the daily wage of a tea worker is only Tk120.

"So are the tea workers not the people of this country? Then where is their income?" he posed a question at the discussion organised by BNP at the National Press Club in the capital.  

Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, a senior member of the Standing Committee of the opposition party, presented a keynote paper at the seminar where he suggested that the government should have taken other alternative steps instead of raising the fuel prices by up to 51% in one go.

He said the decision to increase the fuel price late at night has put the economy in crisis.

The BNP leader said that the government has given more importance to the interests of businessmen belonging to the ruling party and syndicates than public welfare, leaving people to suffer immensely.

"This government is importing energy from abroad only for looting without focusing on domestic energy. It is not possible to boost the economy under the corrupt government because it has no accountability to the people," he added.

He called for immediately withdrawing the current 34% tax on energy imports and lowering the fuel oil prices to their previous levels which were before 5 August.

The former energy minister said the losses of the past few months have to be adjusted with the profits the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) made from selling oil to the public at high prices after buying it at lower prices from the world market.

He called for institutionalising the pricing system by discussing it with the people without imposing the fuel price on the public.

Therefore, Musharraf said that there is no alternative but to launch a mass movement unitedly to realise the rights of the people.

"The government of any country in the world is more attentive to the poor than the rich. They ensure that the poor can live in a good environment in society. And it is the duty of the government. But in Bangladesh, it has been done the opposite way," he alleged.

BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said that the people of this country are undergoing suffering since the Awami League government came to power.

"This government has turned the country into a fascist state. People can't talk anywhere, can't write anywhere and can't go anywhere," he alleged.

Mirza Fakhrul criticised the extensive security arrangements as the prime minister attended the Awami League programme on the day of the 21 August grenade attack on Sunday.

Taking a dig at Sheikh Hasina's statement that there is a conspiracy against the premier and the current government, he said that a security blanket has been set up.

"The question is why so many layers of security have to be set up? Why are you saying this again and again? So how have you run the country for the past 15-16 years? You say that you have eradicated terrorism, then why is that thought arising again?" he threw a slew of questions.

At the seminar, BNP Standing Committee member Abdul Moyeen Khan said, considering the world market rate, the oil price can be reduced by 8% after adjusting all costs.

He said this means the government has unfairly increased the fuel prices.

Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, another member of the standing committee of the opposition party, said that this government has prepared a well-planned national policy where fuel and electricity have been made "political commodities".

"They fixed the price of fuel oil politically rather than doing so at the market rate. It has become a political product," he alleged.

Another BNP Standing Committee member Nazrul Islam Khan spoke at the seminar, among others.