Rural electricity returns after govt assurance

Officials of at least 22 Palli Bidyut Samitis (PBS) in 13 districts have demonstrated in front of their respective offices after switching off the power supply across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers out of electricity for up to seven hours yesterday.
The protests were in response to the “illegal job cuts” of their 20 officials.
There are around 80 samitis (associations) across the country, which supply more than 75 percent of rural electricity.
Yesterday, the national supply dropped by about 50 percent due to the closure of the substations operated by the samitis under the Bangladesh Rural Electricity Board (REB).
In many areas, the electricity supply was restored with the help of the law enforcement agencies.
People suffered all day and hospitals were out of service in some places, reported our correspondents.
They demanded the reinstatement of the officials within 12 hours or they will march to Dhaka soon.
The programme was halted later in the evening following an assurance by Mahfuj Alam, special assistant of the Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, of a favourable solution.
“It will be solved on the basis of fairness by discussion soon,” Alam told a press briefing yesterday.
Protesting officials told The Daily Star that the REB has filed cases against 20 officials of different samitis and dismissed them without issuing any prior notice. All of them joined the previous protests.
The new demands of the protesters are the removal of the new REB chairman SM Zia-Ul-Azim and the withdrawal of the dismissal orders of the 20 employees.
All the four signatories of the movement, who were also leading the demonstration — Abdul Hakim, Md Salahuddin, Asaduzzaman Bhuiyan and Rajan Kuman Das — were among the 20 sacked.
After meeting with Alam, Hakim told the media that they had halted their programme as Yunus’s special assistant sought some time to solve the issue.
The connection was halted for half an hour at noon yesterday, said Md Mokhlesur Rahman, assistant general manager (administration) of Gazipur PBS-1.
In Gazipur PBS–2, the power supply was halted from 11:00 am to 2:30 pm and was restored after police intervention.
The power supply to Chandpar and Targao substations has been off since morning, said Md Kamal Hossain, the officer-in-charge of Kapasia police station.
Both the lines were activated after police were deployed to all substations.
In Manikganj, the power supply was restored after three and a half hours.
Bangladesh Army, police, RAB and district administration officials went to the spot where the protesters were demonstrating and restored the connection at around 2:30pm.
With the intervention of the members of the joint forces, the electricity connection was restored, said SM Aman Ullah, the OC of Manikganj sadar.
In Brahmanbaria, a total of 1,113 villages plunged into darkness from morning to evening.
Due to the sudden shutdown, five lakh residential consumers as well as other commercial, irrigation, industrial and charitable customers suffered all day.
The patients of the Upazila Health Complex and other private hospitals were suffering as a result.
“We have not officially observed any blackout programme. But when the news of sacking officials without prior notices spread, employees reacted hard,” said Abu Sayem, deputy general manager (technical) of Brahmanbaria PBS.
“There was no electricity for about five hours — patients were in a lot of trouble,” said Md. Asaduzzaman Bhuyan, Akhaura upazila health and family planning officer.
In Bagerhat, about 450,000 residents were left without electricity in the afternoon for a couple of hours.
The sudden power cut caused significant inconvenience to the local population.
Residents expressed frustration at the disruption, with many questioning the need to involve essential services like electricity in the protest.
“We pay for electricity as a basic necessity. How is it fair that we suffer like this?” said Sabbir Khan, a local resident.
In Pirojpur and Jhalakathi, around 6 lakh consumers were in serious trouble as PBS kept suspending power supply from 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
“We thought that the interim government would keep no discrimination between the PBS and REB,” said Abdus Salam, deputy general manager (DGM) of Pirojpur PBS.
But without solving the problem, they sacked and arrested some of their officials in false cases.
In Netrokona, the power cuts were the highest for 11 hours. They went for the shutdown at around 9:00 am in the morning and restarted at 8:00 pm.
Of the 20, one is Monir Hossain, the AGM of Barhatta PBS. He was detained by the police in the morning and the rest of the officials went on strike by switching off the power supply.
In Kurigram and Lalmonirhat, about 625,000 customers suffered from 4:00pm to evening.
Noor Jamal, a rural electricity customer of Harati village of Lalmonirhat Sadar Upazila, told The Daily Star that they have not been receiving electricity since 4:00 pm.
“Due to lack of electricity supply, we are facing extreme heat,” he said.
In Munshiganj, the power supply was suspended from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm.
“All of a sudden, some officials from all over the country were sacked — among them there are GM, DGM, AGM rank officers. Some of them have been working here for 20-25 years,” said an official of PBS asking not to be named.
The staff held a blackout programme to protest the illegal dismissal. Later, the army motivated them to turn on the electricity.
“The employees have been agitating over various problems for nine long months. The REB suddenly ordered this dismissal without solving those problems,” he added.
In Pabna, the power supply was halted for six hours, causing suffering for 3.5 lakh electricity customers.
Electricity supply was resumed at about 6:00 pm, said Md. Saidur Rahman, deputy general manager of Sirajganj PBS-2.
PBS officials in Noakhali demonstrated for five hours.