National committee to declare tougher programme from Sunderbans march

Leaders of the national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports at a protest rally in the city warned that they would announce tougher movements from a long march if the government does not back down from implementing coal-based Rampal Thermal Power Plant.
The National Committee held countrywide protest rallies on Saturday.
At a similar rally in front of the National Press Club, they announced about the long march to warm up their supporters. The Dhaka-Rampal long march would begin in Dhaka on March 10 and end at Rampal on March 15.
The platform had organised similar long march to Sunderbans in 2013 with the same demand. Some environmental activists believe that because of that long march, the government slowed down implementing the project.
Anu Muhammad, the member secretary of the national committee who chaired the rally, said that the proposed coal-based Rampal Thermal Power Plant would affect Sunderbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world, badly.
Quoting finance minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Anu said, the minister recently had said that the plant would affect the forest and it would be partial. Muhith had said the country could not afford scrapping the project.
Anu asked: ‘If the plant turns out to be harmful…then for interest of whom it is being implemented?’
He also called on the government not to sign any unequal production sharing contracts with any foreign companies for extracting gas from beneath the Bay of Bengal.
Explaining how an uneven PSC could lead consumers to pay ‘very high price’ for methane gas, Anu said, ‘We will not be able to use the offshore gas for domestic purposes in our country.’
He held responsible some corrupt high officials of the energy ministry behind unequal agreements.
He demanded steps against them.
Dhaka University teacher and also a leader of the national committee, Mohammad Tanzimuddin Khan said the people of Bangladesh would not accept any loss to Sunderbans in the name of development.
He called on the government to scrap the project immediately.
The rally was followed by a protest procession that paraded different city streets.
National Committee leaders Mosharraf Hossain Nannu, Zonayed Saki, Kallol  Mostafa,  Jahangir Alam Fazlu, Khan Asaduzzaman Masum, Zulfikar Ali, Fakhruddin Kabir, Nazrul Islam, Subal Sarker, Akbar Khan, among others, attended human chain programme.

News Courtesy: www.cnn.com