Fuel crisis: Civil society, politicians, slam govt; suggest exploring gas from the sea 

Politicians and civil society members have criticised the government for the current shortfall of fuel in the country and recommended gas exploration and extraction from the Bay of Bengal.

"To deal with the current crisis, using private cars should be stopped for one day in a week and government should not ban battery-run auto rickshaw as many poor people run their family on it," Zafrullah Chowdhury, founder of Gonoshasthaya Kendra, a rural healthcare organisation, said at a discussion on Sunday.

He also recommended reducing dependency on LNG and focusing on generating hydro power.

M Nurul Islam, former professor at the Institute of Appropriate Technology, presented the keynote speech at the event, and said, "Myanmar is extracting gas from the sea despite having a smaller sea area than us, but we have not taken any initiative to explore energy from the sea."

He also said, "We must focus on our own energy resources to survive, and we have the mineral resources.

"If we face shortage after exploring our own resources, only then should we import from outside."

ASM Abdur Rab, JSD president, criticised the government for the electricity shortage and said, "We may face the same fate as Sri Lanka and it will hit us before we know it."

Reza Kibria, convener of Gono Odhikar Parishad said, "The root cause of all the crises in the country, including the electricity crisis, is the corruption of this Awami League government."

He said inflation currently stands at 12% and "the government is hiding it".

Mahmudur Rahman Manna, convenor of Nagorik Oikya said, "Bangladesh is facing a major energy crisis, but the government is denying it."

Former Ducsu VP, Nurul Haque Nur, said "People at some government agencies are directly involved with the corruption involving electricity. The root cause of this corruption is the absence of democracy."

Biplobi Workers Party President Saiful Haque, Chief Coordinator of Ganasanghati Andolan, Junaid Saki, attended the program among others.