Too many trees in rural areas hamper uninterrupted supply of electricity though the country has no deficit in power production, State Minister for Power, Energy and mineral resources Nasrul Hamid told Parliament on Tuesday.
Responding to a tabled question from opposition Jatiya Party lawmaker from Pirojpur Rustam Ali Farazi, the state minister said that the is no deficit of power in country against the demand.
“As a result, there is no load-shedding due to the deficit in power production,” he said.
In response to a question from ruling party lawmake from Chattogram Mahfuzur Rahman, he said that before 2009 the number of people in the country with electricity facilities was 47 per cent.
In the last 13 years, he said, it has been possible to provide electricity to 100 per cent of the people.
The state minister further said that work is underway to bring 100 percent people under electrification under Bangladesh Power Development Board areas.
“It is expected to be completed by June 2023.”
He also said that it was possible to extend cent per cent electrification in all upazilas of the country except some remote areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Responding to a question from Ganoforum lawmaker elected from Sylhet Mokabbir Khan, the state minister said that the government subsidises captive rental or rented power plants every year to provide electricity to the people at affordable prices.
In the financial year 2019-20, Tk 1614 crore and in the financial year 2020-21 Tk 1036 crore has been given.
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Replying to a question from ruling party lawmaker elected from Natore Shafiqul Islam Shimul, the state minister said that according to the latest estimates, the total primary gas reserves is 39.9 trillion cubic feet.
The amount of proven and potential reserves to be extracted is 26.42 trillion cubic feet. After the extraction of 19.11 trillion cubic feet of gas from the beginning to last December 2021, the reserves in January 2022 amounted to 9.30 trillion cubic feet, he said.
In response to a question from Mohamamd Ebadul Karim, AL MP from Brahmanbaria, Nasrul said that at present an average of 2,303 million cubic feet of gas is being produced daily from domestic gas fields.
At present, according to the approved gas load of eight consumer classes, the daily demand is 3,600 million cubic feet. Efforts are being made to fill the deficit by importing about 650 million cubic feet of LNG gas daily due to low production from domestic gas fields, he said.
Responding to a question from the ruling party's MP from Dhaka Benazir Ahmed, the state minister said the number of gas wells in the 20 gas fields currently being produced in the country is 107.
The newly discovered Zakiganj gas field has an extractable gas reserve of 53.13 billion cubic feet, he added.
Replying to a question of ruling party MP from Chattogram M Abdul Latif, Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun said 4,095 metric tonnes of paper produced by Karnafuli Paper Mill remained unsold.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Hasan Mahmud said that a letter was sent to the Department of Posts and Telecommunications to close down the links and cancellation of domain allocation of 179 online news portals that spread confusion among people.
The minister also said the measures were taken as per the instruction of the High Court and on the basis of information provided by the government's intelligence agencies.
In reply to a question from ruling Awami League MP from Chattogram M Abdul Latif, the information minister also said that process is going on to shut down several other online news portals for allegedly spreading false news, rumors and engaging in immoral activities.
The minister said that a letter was sent to the Department of Posts and Telecommunications on October 5, 2021 to close down the links and cancellation of domain allocation of 179 online news portals.
The information minister said the government has already taken various steps to shut down unregistered online news portals.
Replying to another question of AL MP from Dhaka Benazir Ahmed, the minister said that at present there are 1,126 daily, weekly and monthly newspapers publishing from Dhaka district.
Of these, he said, 499 are daily newspapers, 345 are weekly and 262 are monthly.