Gas and power Crisis Will Be Resolved Soon:PM

• “If a Long March Could Solve the Gas-power Crisis, We Would Have Organized It Ourselves First”

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has said the government has taken several initiatives to resolve the gas and electricity crisis, the details of which have been presented in parliament over the past few days. He said he hopes the crisis will be resolved very soon. The Leader of the House made these remarks yesterday in his closing address at the third session of the 13th National Parliament.

Mr. Tarique Rahman said that if a long march could solve the gas or electricity problem, they themselves would have organized a long march before anyone else. He said they had hoped for cooperation from their opposition friends in resolving this energy and electricity problem, but instead saw a massive vehicle-based long march being organized. He questioned whether this was an attempt to needlessly agitate the public in order to pursue some other agenda.

The Prime Minister said that 10 to 12 days after the government was formed following the election, a war situation broke out in the Middle East. Due to this war situation, obstacles arose in the import of oil and gas that used to come from the Middle East — a matter that was clearly reported in all newspapers and international media. He said that, very unfortunately, amid this situation, one of the country’s two FSRUs (floating LNG terminals) suffered an accident due to an electrical short circuit, as a result of which gas supply from that FSRU was completely halted. This added a further complication to the problem, which is why the public across the entire country is currently having to endure this suffering over gas and electricity.

The Prime Minister said everyone remembers this, but he wanted to remind them anyway: when the Russia-Ukraine war began in 2022, citing that war as the reason for addressing the electricity problem at the time, office hours were changed to 8 AM to 3 PM. In the education sector, schools were given two weekly holidays instead of one. Bank transaction hours were also changed. He said he had already stated that they do not want to avoid solving the public’s suffering by citing any excuse; rather, they want to identify the crisis and solve it together, collectively.

Mr. Tarique Rahman said that whenever BNP has come to power, it has resolved all of the country’s crises and made the country self-reliant. This time too, BNP will free the nation from the burden of debt left behind by the previous fascist government, and will build the country into a prosperous economy.