Staff Reporter:
BNP Acting Secretary General and Prime Minister’s Political Adviser Ruhul Kabir Rizvi yesterday said that every state institution must be given the opportunity to function effectively and inde-pendently to ensure sustainable democracy in the country.
“If institutions are not strong, democracy is repeatedly attacked, creating opportunities for fascism to come back,” he said while speaking as the chief guest at a seminar titled “The Recent Gas and Electricity Crisis: What the Government and the Public Should Do.”
The seminar was organized by the Bangladesh Jatiyatabadi Sanskrtik Sangstha (JASAS) at the Na-tional Press Club this afternoon.
Rizvi said, “Attempts to bypass the government’s own initiatives and activities, create chaos on the streets and confuse the public are unacceptable in any way. In a democratic system, the opposition has the right to criticize every action of the government. However, such criticism must be responsi-ble.”
The Acting Secretary General said the government is not sitting idle by only blaming past failures. Instead, it has allocated an additional Tk 40,000 crore outside the budget to expedite gas imports.
Additionally, arrangements are being made to bring gas from neighboring and nearby countries such as Myanmar, Malaysia and Indonesia, Rizvi said.
Mentioning the technical glitch at the Maheshkhali gas terminal, he said that a problem had oc-curred there and it was taking time to repair. The current situation has resulted from the global war on the one hand and a technical glitch at the country’s gas terminal on the other.
He said many of the activities in the power sector over the past 17 years are questionable in the eyes of the people.
“Even though power plants were set up in the private sector and could not generate electricity, payments still had to be made to the plants. This resulted in a massive outflow of money from the state treasury,” Rizvi said.
Emphasizing the need to fulfill social responsibility by conserving electricity in the current situa-tion, he said the government is doing whatever it can. Beyond that, the public must also be con-scious of their electricity usage. Various ways of saving electricity should be followed in accordance with the advice of experts and engineers.
State Minister for Cultural Affairs Ali Newaz Mahmud Khaiyam and Jahangirnagar University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mohammad Kamrul Ahsan spoke as special guests at the seminar.
