Home ›› 23 Aug 2022 ›› Governance
Speakers at a seminar on Monday accused the Awami League government of deliberately pursuing an import-dependent energy policy only to plunder money.
"They've transformed the energy into a political commodity from a market commodity to use it as a tool to make money for a certain section of businessmen," said Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, a member of the BNP standing Committee.
The BNP organised the seminar titled "Corruption is the Sources of Energy Crisis" at the National Press Club with party secretary general Mirza FAkhrul Islam Alamgir in the chair.
BNP Standing Committee Member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, who was the power and energy minister during Khaleda Zia's government in 1991, presented the keynote paper at the seminar.
In the keynote paper, Mosharraf alleged that despite Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's huge fund deposited with banks, the government raised the price of petroleum fuel by 51 per cent without any logical reason.
He claimed that available statistics reveal the BPC has Tk 32,000 crore deposits with different banks while its three subsidiary companies have another Tk 13,000 crore deposits.
"Many energy experts believe that the government could have continued the petroleum supply for next 21 months without raising prices with such deposited funds, " the BNP leader said adding, the price was increased only to plunder public money.
He said the fuel price hike had directly impacted all the sectors of the economy pushing up prices of all commodities. "This is absolutely unacceptable and a deception with people."
Stating that the Awami League government is not an elected one, Mosharraf said, "Had they been elected, they would have a responsibility to people and would have tried to resolve the problem without raising the fuel prices".
"But the government has been driven by a business-monger mentality which is a major reason to be worried," he said adding, the Awami League government has to be removed through a mass movement.
The seminar was also addressed by BNP standing committee members Dr Abdul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, former editor of New Nation Mostafa Kamal Majumder, professional body leader Engineer Rezaul Islam, environment expert Zakir Hossain, National Press Club Secretary Elias Khan and Dhaka Union of Journalist president Quader Gani Chowdhury.
