Won’t get a single vote due to load shedding: Talukder Khaleque
The ruling Awami League’s mayoral candidate in the upcoming Khulna City Corporation (KCC) elections, Talukder Abdul Khaleque has expressed concerns about losing votes due to the unbearable power outage for a large part of the day in Khulna city.
His wife and deputy minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Habibu Nahar disclosed this while addressing a roundtable as the chief guest at the Stamford University auditorium in the capital’s Siddheshwari area on Sunday.
“My husband phoned me after a parliamentary session recently. He said, ‘Tell the state minister for power that I will not get even a single vote due to the unbearable load shedding,’” she said.
“I called Bipu bhai (state minister for power) immediately and said we are losing our seat (mayoral post) in Khulna because of you. He replied, ‘What can I do? The situation will remain the same for the next 25 days,’” Habibun Nahar added.
The people have been suffering due to the ongoing severe heatwave over the last two weeks. Adding to that woes is the load shedding for a large part of the day. The recurrence of power outage has been the highest after midnight for the last few days. The same situation has been prevailing all over the country especially outside Dhaka.
Even the state minister for power Nasrul Hamid also admitted that the load shedding situation has become unbearable.
Speaking to the newspersons at the secretariat on Sunday, he said, “The situation has emerged due to the lack of supply of gas, coal and fuel oil to power plants.”
“The demand for power has increased as a heatwave is sweeping over the country. The amount of load shedding is 2500MW. We have been trying to bring that down. The situation may be normal within the next 10-15 days,” he added.
While addressing the roundtable titled, “Air Pollution from plastic burning: Environmental and Legal factors” on Sunday, Habibun Nahar also stressed on the importance of using fossil fuel.
She said, “You are holding a lot of discussions on fossil fuel. However, many countries, who had opposed the use of coal-power, are using it now.”
“The situation wouldn’t have emerged if there was no fuel crisis,” Habibun Nahar added.