Each and every house to be lit up: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today expressed her firm determination to lighten up each and every house of the country by producing electricity from different sources.

“We will provide electricity connection to each houses of the country, we will give our children access to modern education, every area of the country will be developed, we believe in the balanced development,” she said.

The Prime Minister was inaugurating the 100 percent electricity supply programme and four power plants through video conference from her official residence Ganobhaban.

The upazilas those have already brought under 100 percent electricity coverage are - Faridpur sadar, Rajoir, Naogaon sadar, Kamarkhand, Akhaura, Brahmanbaria sadar, Shalikha, Meherpur sadar, Madon and Belabo.

The power plants set to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister are Shikalbaha 225 MW plant, Chapainawabganj 100 MW plant, Salla 400 Kilowatt solar plant and Sharishabari 3 MW solar plant.

Sheikh Hasina said that production of power is very much essential, but this is not only for the urban people.

“Our target is the rural areas where grassroots level people live, we want to light up their houses, provide healthcare, education and develop their lifestyles,” she said.

Recalling the deplorable condition of power production in 1996, she said that when Awami League assumed power it inherited only 1,600 MW of power production.

“Only some people enjoyed the facility of electricity while the entire rural areas were in dark,” she said.

The Prime Minister said that the governments, who were in power after 1975, never thought about the welfare of the people, rather they were indulged in corruption to make themselves wealthy.

She mentioned that after coming to power in 1996 the then Awami League government enacted law for captive power generations for inviting private sector in power generation to mitigate the power demand and waived all taxes on the import of generators.

“As a result of our time-befitting steps, we were able to improve the power generation from 1,600 MW to 4,300MW,” she cited.

But she regretted saying that when they came to power again in 2009 she saw that the power generation was reduced to 3,200 MW.

“BNP-Jamaat government were involved in looting, money laundering, corruption; they did not do anything for the welfare of the people, as a result the country became champion for five times consecutively in the index of most corrupt countries in the world,” she said.

The Prime Minister mentioned that the government in 2009 set a target to go for producing power quickly as part of a government plan of improving gridline and supply line.

“Considering the growing demand of power, we are moving to diversified sources of power production. We are now getting power from solar, nuclear, coal and oil-based sources side by side we are importing electricity from India to meet the demand,” she said.

The Prime Minister said that the country is now producing 16,150 MW of electricity and 83 percent people of the country have come under the electricity coverage.

PM's Energy Adviser Towfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury and State Minister for Power and Energy Nasrul Hamid also spoke at the programme.

After the inaugural programme, the Prime Minister talked to the cross section of people through video conference.