Negotiations failed once again on the issue of splitting up the state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB). Leaders of the trade union of BPDB tried to negotiate with the state minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid in a meeting held at the secretariat office on Sunday but finally the meeting ended up without any settlement.
The government is on the way to split up the distribution wing from the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) by forming three separate distribution companies for the northern, southern and central regions of the country. Of these three companies, the formation of North-West Zone Power Distribution Company has been completed and is now awaiting operation, while the process to form another two companies is underway.
However, the employees, as well as trade unions of BPDB, are firmly against it. They have been demonstrating for the past few days demanding suspension of the new company. The state minister sat on another meeting with the protesters just a few days earlier and the issue was not resolved there.
Zahirul Islam Chowdhury, president of the Bidyut Shramik League, told The Enerybangla, “Negotiations will be on. We will never accept forming a new company out of BPDB. Agitations will get stiffer if the government doesn’t change its course towards the transformation procedure of PDB” Government officials said that some ministers would meet the prime minister this week regarding the power sector issue.
Many of the 19,500 staff members of BPDB refrained from attending offices on Tuesday after submitting applications for three days of leave. The power supply situation, however, remained unhampered during the agitation. The workers started their protests from 1st August, the day when the formal procedure of the handover started as government signed a MoU, as well as a power purchase and sales agreement with NWZPDC.
Earlier in a meeting with Nasrul Hamid and shipping minister Shahjahan Khan, the prime minister asked the state minister about the progress of the splitting up procedure and urged it to make it fast.