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Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Saturday apologised to the people for the ongoing electricity and gas shortages and assured them that the government was taking urgent measures to ease the crisis, expressing hope that the gas situation would improve significantly within the next few days.
“I sincerely apologise to the people for the suffering caused by the power crisis. I hope that, with Allah’s mercy, the gas crisis will ease considerably within the next few days,” he said.
The Prime Minister was speaking at a cheque distribution and doa mahfil organised at the Mohakhali TNT Field under the Dhaka-17 constituency to mark the 81st birth anniversary of former prime minister and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia.
Local BNP units and their affiliated organisations organised the programme, where cheques were distributed among 682 distressed, helpless and sick people.
Tarique Rahman acknowledged that people in different parts of the country were suffering from electricity shortages and said the government was working on both immediate measures and longer-term reforms to address weaknesses in the energy sector.
Explaining the gas shortage, the Prime Minister said Bangladesh’s limited LNG storage and regasification capacity had left the country vulnerable to disruptions in imported gas supplies.
“Gas was once a natural resource of Bangladesh. But over the past 17 years, the autocratic government did not explore new gas fields and instead left the entire sector dependent on foreign sources,” he said.
He said the government had decided after taking office to accelerate domestic gas exploration through Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation so that the country’s gas resources could remain under national control.
Tarique Rahman said Bangladesh currently had to import a substantial portion of its gas and had only two vessels for storing and regasifying imported LNG.
He claimed that an arrangement made during the previous government for an additional vessel was later cancelled by the interim government. As a result, he said, an accident involving one of the two existing vessels had triggered the current gas crisis.
The Prime Minister said the technical problems had already been addressed and the government was working to restore normal supply as quickly as possible.
“We are working to free people from this hardship as quickly as possible,” he said.
He added that Bangladesh was working with China and other countries to accelerate the construction and deployment of an additional LNG vessel.
Tarique Rahman also said he had spoken with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to seek assistance in meeting Bangladesh’s gas requirements.
He urged people to remain patient, saying specialised LNG vessels take considerable time to build and are manufactured by only a limited number of countries.
The Prime Minister also called on opposition political parties criticising the government over the energy crisis to offer concrete and workable alternatives instead of creating confusion among the public.
“If you have a better plan, bring it before parliament and the people. If that plan is realistic and can solve the problems within six months, we will implement it,” he said.
He said the government would place its longer-term strategy for resolving the country’s energy problems before Parliament in its next session.
Tarique Rahman said the government had been working to rebuild key sectors since taking office, but cautioned against expecting all problems accumulated over many years to be solved within six months.
“Even a child takes around 15 to 18 months to learn to walk, even when holding someone’s hand. The age of your elected government is only six months,” he said.
He urged political parties to move away from confrontational politics and focus on practical proposals for national development.
“Politics is not about confusing the people. A politician’s responsibility is to help people remain patient and show them the right path,” he said.
The Prime Minister said people wanted development, accountability and improvements in their living standards rather than street agitation and disorder.
“Bringing destruction to the streets and creating disorder is over. The people no longer support that kind of politics,” he said.
He said Bangladesh’s roughly 20 crore people represented “40 crore hands” that needed to be transformed into productive and skilled workers to strengthen the country’s economy.
“What I received is not the most important thing; what I could give to this country and its people is what matters,” he said.
Tarique Rahman paid tribute to Khaleda Zia on her 81st birth anniversary and called for renewed efforts to build Bangladesh along the path of development and democracy.