‘Hawa Bhaban syndicate’ sucked Tk 8,000 crore from power sector, says ex-power minister

Former state minister for power Anwarul Kabir Talukder Saturday alleged that 'Hawa Bhaban-bureaucrat-business' syndicate had sucked Tk 8,000 crore from the power sector during the last five years.

The immediate past government invested Tk 17,500 crore in the power sector, but could not produce one megawatt of electricity during its tenure.

He alleged that the immediate past Prime Minister, her Principal Secretary and the present energy secretary had been 'directly involved in massive corruption' in the power sector.

In an exclusive interview with bdnews24.com Talukder alleged that 'hired goons' of the present Energy Secretary A N H Akhter Hossain ransacked the power offices in Uttara, Mirpur, Pallabi, Sabujbagh and other parts of the city and provoked people to go on the rampage on September 26.

The 'ploy' had been designed to discredit him and tarnish his 'clean' image, Talukder claimed.

"Following the September 26 incidents, former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfozzaman Babar was given the charge of Power Ministry on September 28 on a verbal order from the then Prime Minister," said Talukder, who was reportedly sacked as State Minister for Power during the last government. Talukder had, however, claimed he resigned.

ANH Akhter Hossain while talking to bdnews24.com Sunday denied Talukder's allegations terming them 'false and childish'. He said: "Regrettable; a senior person like him (Talukder) should not talk in such a way."

Talukder, the former BNP lawmaker of Jamalpur-4 constituency, and now a leading figure in the newly formed Liberal Democratic Party of former President A Q M Badruddoza Chowdhury, said the power situation in the country would aggravate further.

"It would take three years to maintain status quo in power sector even if improvement plans were implemented with honesty and efficiency", he said.

He said he referred the cases of corrupt practices to the Anti-Corruption Commission and would testify in the court, if necessary.

Regarding demand-supply, Talukder said daily demand of electricity was 5,500 mega watts against the production of 3,000 mega watts. The Power Ministry used to produce false statistics on electricity, he disclosed. Even, false statistics were placed at the meetings of the parliamentary standing committees, he said.

He said the former Prime Minister and her Principal Secretary Kamal Uddin Siddiqui 'directly patronised corruption' in the power sector. Talukder said being instructed by Prime Minister, an 'unconstitutional' committee comprising bureaucrats were formed at the Prime Minister's Office.

The committee's status was between the power minister and the state minister. This committee used to intervene into the ministry's affairs and patronised corrupt practices, he said.

Of the total government fund of Tk 17,500 crore invested in the power sector during the last five years, he said, Tk 2,500 crore was spent as establishment cost.

"Of the rest Tk 15,000 crore, Tk 8,000 crore was looted by the Hawa Bhaban-bureaucrat-business syndicate. Some Ministers and MPs were also involved in it," he said.

Talukder claimed he tried to purge the power ministry of corruption—part of the reason he was removed from the job.

He said the outgoing government's only project Tongi Power Plant, with 105 mega watts capacity, was yet to go into production because of corruption and use low standard of equipments.

"The standard of the booster compressors was downgraded to Chinese standard from the internationally recognised standard resulting in lowering of the capacity, but interestingly the price went up," Talukder said.

He pointed fingers at the Hawa Bhaban, PDB's board of directors and the dishonest officials of the Power Ministry for the 'corruption'.

He said he could have purchased 200 mega watts of electricity at the rate of less than Tk 1.9 per unit from the private sector, but he was not allowed to do so.

"If I purchased that 200 MW electricity from private sector, setting up of eight captive power plants with 240 MW could not be justified," Talukder said.

Those eight plants were yet to go into production, but they had been paid, he said.

"The state will have to pay Tk 8,000 crore to those eight captive power plant owners as subsidy during the next 15 years. But this money could easily be saved by purchasing electricity from the private sector," the former State Minister said.

--BDNEWS