United News of Bangladesh

The government has decided to appoint tag officers at all petrol pumps across the country to strengthen monitoring and coordination of fuel management activities amid the global crisis. The decision was taken at an online meeting held on March 27 chaired by Mohammad Saiful Islam, secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, said a statement  of Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources. According to the decision, one tag officer will be assigned to each petrol pump nationwide. In Dhaka and Chattogram metropolitan areas, the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) will appoint the tag officers. Outside these metropolitan areas, deputy commissioners at district and divisional level and upazila nirbahi  officers at the upazila level, will assign a government official as tag officer for each petrol pump under their respective jurisdictions. The appointed officers will perform their duties following guidelines set by the Energy and Mineral Resources Division and BPC and will submit daily reports. All departments and agencies concerned have been requested to appoint the tag officers and send the information to the Energy and Mineral Resources Division accordingly.  

The government has decided to resort to daily 2 hours area-based load-shedding across the country from Tuesday in a bid to tackle the ongoing power crisis. Prime Minister’s Energy advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury announced the decision after a high level meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office on Monday. State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid and principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr Ahmad Kaikaus also attended the meeting. Tawfiq-e-Elahi said the power distribution entities will conduct the load shedding under a schedule so that the people get time to take preparation for it and do not feel any disturbance. Read: PM seeks people’s support to cut power subsidy amid hard times But in each spell, no load shedding will continue more than half an hour, he said. He said the diesel-run power plants will remain closed until further order to save petroleum fuels while the shopping malls and markets will have to be closed by 8 pm. He said some options like keeping petrol pumps closed one day a week were discussed at the meeting. He said the government office hours may be rescheduled while virtual meetings will be held instead of those with physical presence.