Relocate Rampal power plant: Nat’l Committee

Leaders of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, at a protest rally on Saturday called on the government to relocate the coal-based Rampal Thermal power plant from Rampal in Bagerhat to somewhere else.
Rampal is so nearer to the Sunderbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, that the plant could destroy the ecology of the forest, they said.
The national committee declared fresh programme, including a demonstration towards the Prime Minister’s Office on 28 July, protesting against the signing of the Rampal project contract.
The Dhaka city unit of the national committee organised the rally in front of the National Press Club, where its member secretary Anu Muhammad, said, the government could relocate the power station somewhere else so that the Sunderbans could be saved.
He also suggested the government to relocate the plant to India, as four Indian companies were executing the project.
‘We will buy electricity from India,’ Anu said.
He said the government wants to please India, USA and China to remain in power by setting up Rampal plant in the vicinity of the mangrove forest.
‘The people of the country are opposing Rampal project to save the Sunderbans,’ he said.
He called on the people to join in the march towards the Prime Minister’s Office on July 28, starting from National Press Club, protesting against the signing of the project contract.
The city committee also paraded the city streets and concluded their programme at the Bahadur Shah Park to drum up citizens’ supports for their march to the PMO.
Chaired by city unit leader Jahangir Alam Fazlu, the rally was addressed, among others, by Ashraf Hossain Ashu, Nazrul Islam, Zulfikar Ali, Fakhruddin Kabir and Sekander Hayet.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net