Gas, electricity come and go; no one knows how long they’ll stay: Rumeen Farhana

Independent lawmaker Rumeen Farhana has criticised the government over the ongoing gas and power crisis, inflation, rising prices and employment situation, saying the uncertainty over energy supply is putting pressure on people’s lives and businesses.

Speaking in parliament today (27 August), the Brahmanbaria-2 MP said, “Honourable speaker, what more can I say about energy? Mischievous people say, while good people don’t, ‘tuku comes, tuku goes’. It comes and goes; apparently, no one knows how long it stays.”

However, it was not clear whether the lawmaker was hinting towards Iqbal Hassan Mahmood Tuku, the power, energy, and mineral resources minister, through the quip about the ongoing gas and power crisis.

She said fuel prices were rising while people were struggling with electricity shortages, and gas was also unavailable. The situation was putting pressure on people’s daily lives as well as businesses and industries.

Rumeen also criticised the government over inflation, saying people were increasingly uncomfortable with rising prices.

She said the government had identified maintaining law and order, controlling commodity prices and ensuring energy security as key priorities, but there had been little progress in these areas.

She also took a dig at the home minister over the law and order situation, saying the minister often used sarcasm or rhetoric to deflect questions about the issue.

“If you talk to ordinary people, you will find that just as Bangladesh has three foreign ministers, it would not be bad if there were 64 home ministers responsible for law and order – one in each district,” she said.

Rumeen also criticised the government over employment, saying it had promised to create one crore new jobs.

She claimed that 62,000 people had lost their jobs and more than 900 factories had shut down since the government came to power.

“How will new employment be created in such a situation?” she asked, adding that there was also uncertainty over how long those who currently have jobs would be able to retain them.

On commodity prices, Rumeen said ordinary people were struggling when they went to the markets.

“There are no vegetables below Tk80,” she said, adding that egg and Miniket rice prices had also increased. She also pointed to long queues for subsidised products sold through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).

Rumeen urged the government to take effective measures to ease the hardship caused by the gas and electricity crisis, inflation, rising commodity prices and uncertainty over employment.