Bangladesh is not showing any signs of improvement, the country's industries are collapsing due to the power crisis and now it is bent on making its condition worse. A lawyer of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh has filed a PIL in the High Court, in this petition it has been demanded that the court should direct the interim government to review or cancel the power agreement with India's Adani Group.
Bangladeshi barrister M. Abdul Qayyum has filed a writ petition as a public interest case. In this, he has challenged the validity of the agreement signed between the Bangladesh government and Adani Power (Jharkhand) Limited on 5 November 2017.
Lawyer Abdul Qayyum has told Bangladesh's daily newspaper 'The Daily Star' that the High Court may hear the case next week. Regarding the petition, he says that he has included the opinion of many experts in it, who say that under this agreement, Bangladesh is paying more for low-grade coal power than coal-based power.
In this writ petition, Abdul Qayyum has cited a report by Al-Jazeera and claimed that the Adani Group charges a higher price for coal than the international market. The petitioner says that the Adani Group is also recovering the cost of supplying coal to the Godda plant from Bangladesh. Since the supply chain is very expensive, Bangladesh also has to pay a higher price for the electricity it gets from the Adani Group.
Lawyer Abdul Qayyum has said in the petition that it is unimaginable how BPDB entered into this one-sided agreement. He has alleged that the officials of the Bangladesh Power Development Board involved in the agreement have been managed by the Adani Group.
On November 6, Supreme Court lawyer Abdul Qayyum sent a notice to the chairman of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the secretary of the Ministry of Energy, demanding that the power agreement made with the Adani Group be reviewed or canceled within 3 days. But when no action was taken by the BPDB and the Ministry of Energy, he has now approached the High Court.
Earlier, the interim government of Mohammad Yunus had also indicated to review this agreement with Adani Group. The government wants to know what were the terms of the agreement and is Bangladesh really paying a higher price for electricity under it? Questions have been raised in Bangladesh for many years regarding this agreement made by the Sheikh Hasina government.
Although this deal with Adani Group provides Bangladesh with about 10 percent of its electricity, most of Bangladesh's industries are already getting ruined due to the power crisis. The Bangladesh government already owes the group a bill of Rs 7 thousand crore, for which Adani Group has given ultimatums to the interim government several times. It is believed that if this deal with Adani Group is cancelled or Adani Group stops the power supply due to outstanding bills, then Bangladesh may have to suffer huge losses.
