BNP to hold sit-in on 8 June to protest against load shedding

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) will hold an hour-long sit-in programme in front of all the district offices of the Power Division across the country on 8 June to protest the ongoing loadshedding and 'corruption' in the power sector.

Besides, the party will also submit a memorandum to the district power offices on the same day.

BNP's senior joint secretary general Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the programme on Tuesday at a press conference at the party's Naya Paltan central office.

He said the programme was worked out at a meeting of their party’s standing committee, the highest policy-making body, on Monday night.

“A sit-in program will be observed from 11am to 12pm in front of the power office at the district headquarters on 8 June and a memorandum will be submitted there in protest against the unbearable loadshedding and massive corruption in the power sector,” the BNP leader said.

He said people are going through unbearable suffering due to terrible power outages across the country. "In villages and towns, people get electricity for one or two hours in 24 hours. People are experiencing loadshedding for five-six hours during the day as well.”

The BNP leader also said power is also not available in the capital for more than 3/4 hours every day.

He alleged that the government looted thousands of crores of taka in the name of quick rental power projects and subsidies for the power sector.  “Their (govt) fraudulence is now clearly exposed before the people through the rampant loadshedding.”

“The Awami government has committed a criminal offence by creating scope for looting in the power sector. The indemnity law has been enacted to legitimize looting in the power sector. That is why those involved in these quick-rental projects should be arrested. They’re the biggest enemies of the people,” the BNP leader said.

He condemned the attack at on the peaceful road march programme of Ganatantra Mancha in Bogura.