National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port on Monday ruled out any possibility of an alliance with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party in the movement against the coal-fired Rampal power plant project near the Sunderbans. At a press conference in the city, the committee also ruled out prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent claim that the power plant would not harm the Sunderbans. It said that the technology mentioned by Hasina would only increase the cost of power generation at Rampal power plant leaving significant impact on the Sunderbans through air and water pollutions by micro-level particles and different harmful oxides. The committee held the press conference two days after Hasina reiterated her government’s firm stand for the Rampal power plant claiming that the power plant would not cause any harm to the unique biodiversity of the Sunderbans. Earlier on Wednesday, BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia demanded cancellation of the Rampal power plant project terming it anti-people, anti-state, imprudent, illogical and non-profitable and called on people to raise voice against the project. At Monday’s press conference, committee’s member-secretary Anu Muhammad said that their policy did not allow an alliance with any individual or any organisation involved in any act against national interest. The erstwhile BNP-led government had taken many decisions including to extract coal from Phulbari deposit in Dinajpur using harmful open-pit method, he said, adding that both the major political parties — BNP and the ruling Awami League — extended supports to the committee’s movements at times whenever they were in opposition. In 2006, Hasina, as the opposition leader, extended her support to the movement against open-pit coal mining project at Phulbari. Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company, a 50-50 joint venture of Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation, is implementing the project to install a 1,320MW coal-fired power plant at Rampal in Bagerhat by 2019. Anu rejected Hasina’s claim that the emission of gases from the power plant would not harm the Sunderbans as wind flowed to the opposite direction of the Sunderbans from the project site. Referring to Environmental Impact Assessment report prepared by the government itself, he said that the wind would flow towards the Sunderbans from the site for at least four months, from November to February, every year. Anu rejected the prime minister’s claim that there would not be any sound, air and water pollution by the Rampal power plant. He said the government documents showed that loading-unloading of coal and its transportation would pollute the Passur river, vital for survival of the Sunderbans. He said that the joint-venture’s documents showed that hot water with two degrees centigrade higher than the normal temperature would be released in the river Passur but Hasina claimed that no polluted or hot water would be released in the river. He asked that how could it be believed that the Effluent Treatment Plant would be used at the power plant in a remote area whereas the government had failed to ensure its use at the factories in Dhaka which had almost destroyed four rivers around the capital. Committee convener Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah said that the movement would continue until the interest of the people was protected.
Source: New Age
