Bangladesh’s 80 rural electricity cooperatives have asked police for security after reporting attacks and vandalism at power facilities in several areas amid prolonged load-shedding caused by reduced generation during a fuel crisis.
The Bangladesh Rural Electrification Association sent a letter to the Inspector General of Police seeking stronger security at the cooperatives’ grids, substations and offices. The letter, signed by the association’s office secretary Mahbubur Rahman, was sent to the IGP on Wednesday.
It said the fuel crisis and severe heat have disrupted electricity generation below demand. Reduced supply has caused extra load-shedding across the country, especially in areas served by rural cooperatives. Public anger is rising, and some substations and offices have come under attack.
The association said rural cooperatives serve about 40 million of Bangladesh’s roughly 52 million electricity customers, or about 80 percent of all customers. The cooperatives do not generate electricity; they distribute the power allocated to them.
Over the past several days, the cooperatives’ average demand has been about 8,000 to 9,000 megawatts, while they have received allocations averaging 5,000 to 6,000 megawatts. As a result, some areas have experienced an average of 8 to 12 hours of load-shedding each day.
The letter said people frustrated by long outages have attacked and vandalized substations in different parts of the country. Officers and employees working at substations and other facilities are consequently facing insecurity and fear.
The association asked the IGP to direct local law-enforcement agencies to strengthen security at every rural cooperative’s grid, substation and office. Copies of the letter were sent to the minister, state minister and secretary of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources; the chairman’s private secretary at the Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board; all deputy commissioners, police superintendents, rural cooperative general managers, upazila nirbahi officers and police-station officers in charge.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report