Irregularities, anomalies in power and gas connection
Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Gas and electricity play an essential role in national development. Electricity facilities have reached the doorsteps of common people in Bangladesh today. The success of electricity is definitely a positive aspect of the nation’s overall development. But in place of this success, a class of privileged group creates problems and anarchy in supply and distribution, connectivity for which people have to suffer. In addition, there is gross negligence in the performance of duties of a class of employees of the concerned department. The state often has to face economic and social disasters. Besides, there is the gas sector. The various stakeholders of the gas sector like Titas, BERC often do not hesitate to hold the common people hostage. In addition to them, PDB, DESA, REB as stakeholders of electricity also play the same role. In some cases, the indulgence is more than those in gas sectors.
My aim is to make aware of irregularities and mismanagement in the supply and distribution system including gas and electricity connections. The overall discipline of these two sectors is presented in its detailed data-based statistics and analytical review. Brahmanbaria district is located on the banks of river Titas. Titas is also the name of a gas company. Leakage in the connection pipelines provided by them, illegal connections or their irregularities-corruption are not new. There are many questions about Titas Gas, a state-owned company. Titas has now become a public enemy. Gas leaks from 70 thousand points in Dhaka city. Petrobangla or BERC, none of them are performing. They have become ineffective as institutions. The main problem with Titas is that they are more interested in making money illegally. Illegal gas pipelines are seen by many as a time bomb nowadays.
The painful pictures of some gas explosion accidents organized in different parts of the country which have been published in the newspapers are highlighted below. I believe it will help in increasing civic consciousness. 7 people including women and children were killed in 2019 gas line explosion in Patharghata of Chittagong. Several other people were severely burnt in this incident. A gas line exploded on the ground floor of a five-story building. Two walls of the building collapsed. Fire Service officials quickly reached the spot and rescued 17 people and admitted them to Chittagong Medical College Hospital.Casualties also occur due to various faults in gas-pipelines. Gas connections are illegally taken in Dhaka city and its surrounding areas. These gas-pipelines have technical faults; serious accidents occur due to pipeline leakages. In order to avoid accidents, training and workshops should be arranged with dealers and dispatchers. Apart from cooking, gas cylinders are also used in motor vehicles. According to the information provided by the Department of Explosives, only 14 to 15 thousand vehicles submit the gas cylinder test report out of 2.5 million vehicles registered in the country.
Previously, a woman and a child died due to electrocution when a puddle on the road came in contact with an exposed live wire during rain. In 2014, a rickshaw puller died from electrocution at Rahattarpul in Chittagong city when he stepped on a live wire on a road. Though the majority of cases of fatalities and accidents due to exposed live electric cable on the roads remain unreported, the obvious danger cannot elude our understanding. Electric cables have been set up in an unplanned way throughout the country. Over time, these wires end up hanging low over the heads of pedestrians. The risk is aggravated during the rainy season. The lines connect an area through pillars and posts. The transformers are supposed to have their definite power voltage capacity. In a pillar there are hundreds and thousands of cable points. And the electric and telecommunication wires hold pillar in such a way as appearing to be difficult to identify the nature. All come together and make an alloy of copper, silver, zinc, platinum and magnesium. However, it is made protected by bringing all those together. Sometimes, those wires are splatted to and fro of people’s using path may even block the roads of different vehicles. This is all about outside picture.
The present government came to power with the promise of an end to the power crisis and a ‘loadshedding-free Bangladesh’. What we see now – an immediate crisis partly mitigated by the use of expensive oil-fired rental power plants, very little progress in the construction of efficient power plants, no effort in retiring highly inefficient power plants, little progress in building coal-fired power plants and very little addition to our gas reserves. These all add up to portray a dismal picture of our energy future. Thus all governments have been failing to tackle the real issues confronting the power and gas sectors.
Negligence and irresponsibility are the root cause of for gas and power disasters. The connectivity disorder of gas and electricity will cause the future problem of nation. Again environmental friendly connection of electricity and gas is a far cry. There is no discipline in the display of cables and wires. These problems are the product of illegal gas and electricity distribution by corrupt officials in those departments. It seems that they have been spared to do that by the authority and authority has no say. They are just handicapped to those and kept as a playing doll. How long it will continue? Is it the symptom of good governance and democracy? How to get rid of it? Their mouths are kept shut. People’s life is in now fear and tension. Did Bangabandhu Want it? Does the Prime Minister want it? The answer is no. This is misfortune of our common people.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
