BARAPUKURIA COAL 5.48 lakh tonne stolen in 13yrs

A Consumers Association of Bangladesh report released on Tuesday said that 5.48 lakh tonnes of coal were misappropriated since coal extraction at the coal mine of Barapukuria, Dinajpur began in 2005.

The finding is the result of CAB’s 19-month-long investigation launched in 2018 immediately after the news broke that 1.44 lakh tonnes of coal disappeared from a government coal yard at the mine.

A total of 23 former and serving Bangladesh Coal Mining Company Limited officials are being tried for the disappearance of the coal though they repeatedly sought to explain it as system loss.

The CAB report said that the misappropriation would not have occurred without cooperation among government stakeholders involved in running the coal mine such as Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Petrobangla, Bangladesh Coal Mining Company Limited and Power Development Board.

‘Barapukuria coal mine stands as a classic example of corruption and looting of national resources in Bangladesh,’ said Syed Abul Maksud, head of the six-member probe body formed  by CAB.

‘We want trial of those looting our national resources,’ he said just before the report was unveiled at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity Tuesday morning.

The CAB report said that the contract signed between the coal mining company and the Chinese coal miner, XMC/CMC consortium, permits mined coal to contain no more than 5.1 per cent moisture.

The report said that the coal mining company had received 107.46 lakh tonnes of coal from the miner with 10.5 per cent moisture since the coal mine operation began in 2005. After deducting extra moisture, the coal mining company paid for 101.66 lakh tonnes of coal, said the report.

‘But the coal mining company sells the coal with extra moisture for it does not give its buyers the choice of bargain,’ said Dhaka University geology professor and energy experts Badrul Imam, also a member of the probe body.

The CAB report concluded that the amount of coal misappropriated from the mine would at least be 5.48 lakh tonnes, after considering Ptrobangal’s proposal of 1.5 per cent system loss.

The coal mining company sells its coal to PDB and other buyers, including private industries.

The CAB report revealed that the coal sold to PDB by the coal mining company

contained 15 per cent moisture or above.

In other words, said the CAB report, the consumers were sold water worth 5.02 lakh tonnes of coal.

Citing the latest feasibility studies conducted by the government, the CAB probe body members said that the acceptable moisture limit in coal extracted from the Barapukuria coal mine is 2.3 per cent.

But as the coal mining company allowed the Chinese consortium to sell coal with high moisture, it paid the Chinese miner extra money worth 2.85 lakh tonnes of coal, said the report.

The CAB investigation report also listed a set of 27 discrepancies in running the coal mining company, a subordinate of Petrobangla.      

The report said that the coal mining company continued selling coal in the open market even when there was a shortage in supply by falsely claiming that there was enough coal in reserve.

The production of power supplied to the northern region was largely dependent on the availability of coal from the coal mining company.

In 2018, severe power crisis gripped the northern region after it suddenly turned out that the coal mining company had no coal reserve and failed to supply enough coal to keep the Barapukuria power station running.

The coal supplied to PDB by the coal mining company often carries unwanted materials such as iron and pieces of tyres, said the report.

The coal mining company does not have a system in place to measure its system loss and keep an account of its purchase and sale of coal.

The company has failed to build its capacity to supervise the mine for coal extraction and is still incapable of taking over the mine from the Chinese consortium, said the report.

But the coal mining company employees take many benefits meant for miners only, said the report.

The company had withdrawn a case involving misappropriation of 300 tonnes of coal by its officials even before the latest coal scam broke out in July 2018, said the report.

CAB energy adviser professor Shamsul Alam said that the discrepancies discussed in the report constitute offenses and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to book.

He said that a large number of government employees were involved in stealing coal from the Barapukuria coal mine.

‘We however are not revealing the names of the perpetrators for that lies outside the scope of our work,’ said Shamsul Alam, also a member of the probe body.

He demanded that the sale of coal by coal mining company must be confined to PDB and the moisture and the weight of the coal supplied by the coal mining company should be measured automatically and the measurement data should be made available to the consumers.

He also demanded a review of the existing coal policy while emphasising that the coal extracted from the Barapukuria mine should not be allowed to contain more than 2.3 per cent moisture.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net