State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Anindya Islam Amit on Thursday told Parliament that the government has decided to introduce a trial of 110 megawatts of load shedding in the capital to ensure uninterrupted electricity for irrigation and reduce the urban-rural disparity.
“Due to lack of adequate energy supply, load shedding is happening in some places. On the advice of the Prime Minister and in discussions with the Opposition Leader, we have decided to initially conduct experimental load shedding of 110 MW in Dhaka to bring this issue to a tolerable level,” he said.
Making a statement under Rule 300 in the House, the state minister said the decision was taken to protect farmers during the peak irrigation season and ensure fair distribution of electricity between rural and urban areas.
"We think that the people in the city will be in comfort but the people in the villages who are the hard-working farmers will be suffering, which is in no way desirable," he said.
He said there should be no discrimination between cities and villages. “To eliminate that discrimination, we have decided to implement load shedding in cities as needed, so that farmers can get sufficient electricity for their irrigation,” he said.
The minister expressed regret over the suffering caused by ongoing power outages, noting that the current load-shedding—hovering around 2,000 megawatts—would ease within the next seven days.
“There is no denying that many people have suffered due to the power crisis during this intense summer heat. This is not a problem created overnight; rather, it is the result of accumulated mismanagement in the past,” he said, adding that the current government has to bear the liability caused by mismanagement by the ‘fascist’ government.
He explained that although the power generation capacity appears high on paper, actual output falls short due to fuel constraints.
On Wednesday, peak electricity demand stood at around 16,000 megawatts, while generation reached only 14,126 MW, forcing load-shedding of about 2,086 MW.
The minister said the government has prioritised uninterrupted electricity supply for irrigation to ensure farmers are not affected during the harvest season, in line with directives from the prime minister.