The parliamentary watchdog on energy and power on Wednesday expressed satisfaction at the state of power generation during the tenure
of the incumbent government but it was silent on the massive power cuts in last few days.
The standing committee on energy, power and mineral recourses ministry said people could involve in massive development activities for the increased generation of power.
The committee, however, laid stress on generation of power at economy price, stopping power wasting, reducing system loss and popularising renewable power like solar power for better electricity management.
Committee chairman Subid Ali Bhuiyan said there was no discussion on the massive power cuts in both rural and urban areas in the last few days.
The committee in its 51st meeting was dissatisfied at the gas supply situation and called on the ministry to formulate a policy on use and distribution of gas.
It also called for adopting a consumer-friendly policy and legalising illegal gas connections if required giving a general amnesty so that they could be brought into the revenue net.
‘If you snap an illegal connection, the user will go for another one as it was his necessity. So we suggested the ministry to bring the illegal users into the revenue net by legalising the connections giving them a general amnesty,’ said committee member Abdul Matin Khasru.
The committee also asked the ministry to resolve the gas crisis immediately by increasing production from existing gas fields, conducting massive offshore and onshore explorations, popularising alternative energy and adopting fuel austerity measures at all spheres.
The committee elaborately discussed the gas crisis and the ministry attributed the crisis to sharp increase in demand against production.
The committee also agreed that the present crisis in gas supply situation resulted from the lack of sincerity on the part of past government in increasing production of gas and explorations activities.
The meeting also asked the ministry to update the Energy Policy which was formulated in 2008.
Committee members M Monwar Hossain Chowdhury, Sheikh Fazle Noor Tapas and Rezwan Ahmed Toufiq also attended the meeting.
-With New Age input
