Govt, autonomous offices to run 7 hours daily to save energy

The government has decided to run all government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous offices from 8am to 3pm instead of 9am to 5pm daily to save electricity.

The new office hours will come into effect from Wednesday, 24 August, said Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam at a press briefing after a Cabinet meeting at the Secretariat yesterday.

Private offices will make decisions regarding their office hours as per their own plans, he added.

Banks across the country will remain open from 9am to 4pm daily from Wednesday to save electricity.

The Cabinet has also decided to keep all educational institutions in the country closed for two days a week – on Friday and Saturday.

In a gazette issued yesterday, the public administration ministry said Friday and Saturday will be weekly holidays for government, semi-government, autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions.

The emergency services will remain out of the purview of these instructions.

The Cabinet asked the power, energy and mineral resources ministry to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply in the rural areas from midnight to dawn for the next 10-15 days so that irrigation is not hampered.

It also directed the government offices to remove curtains in their offices to allow natural light inside the rooms and to use air conditioners as little as possible to cut electricity consumption, said the cabinet secretary.

He expressed his hope that these would help save electricity as well as ease traffic congestion.

On 17 July, the government decided to halt production at all diesel-run power plants – which provide around 2.79% of the country's electricity – across the country until further notice. Last week, two of those power plants resumed operation.

It also decided to keep fuel stations closed for a day every week in a bid to tackle the ongoing power and energy crisis.

On 20 July, the Prime Minister's Office instructed all government offices to reduce electricity consumption by 25% as part of the government's austerity measures to combat the ongoing energy crisis.

In a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on 20 July, the authorities instructed government officials not to wear suits in order to save electricity and energy consumption.

As part of the austerity measures, all types of foreign travels and car purchases have been halted, except the ones required in extremely urgent cases.

Besides, the honorarium of various committees of development projects has been suspended. Moreover, 50% of the allocation for the purchase of stationery items, computers and accessories has been suspended. Financing of projects that do to need urgent implementation has also been put on hold. The measures are expected to save about Tk40,000 crores.

Two university bills approved

The Cabinet yesterday approved the bills for two public universities – Mujib Nagar University in Meherpur and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman University in Naogaon.

It also approved the Sylhet Development Authority Law 2022 with a view to developing the Sylhet city in a planned way.

The Cabinet approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Greece, which would allow around 4,000-5,000 skilled Bangladeshi labourers and farmers to go to the European country every year.

Around 15,000 illegal Bangladeshi labourers already staying in Greece will also get work permits after signing the MoU.

The Cabinet also approved the Light Engineering Industry Development Policy, under which the sector entrepreneurs will get loans with only 2% interest from banks. Women business owners will get a maximum Tk50 lakh without any mortgage.

There are around 40,000 light engineering factories with 6 lakh entrepreneurs in the country.