Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited is responsible for supplying gas to Dhaka, Narayanganj, Munshiganj, Narsingdi, Manikganj, Gazipur, Tangail, Mymensingh, Netrokona, Sherpur, Jamalpur and Kishoreganj districts.
According to Titas officials, around 250 km of illegal gas pipeline and two lakh illegal connections have been detected in its franchise area. These illegal connections consume 200 million cubic feet of gas each day, causing a good amount of revenue loss to the government exchequer. Some unscrupulous officials at Titas have allegedly been taking bribes to allow illegal gas connections to a large number of households.
According to the Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), Titas has provided gas connections in violation of rules to about 500 companies over the last four years. The ACC inquiry has also unearthed that the top officials of the company were involved in the graft. Allegations are there that Titas officials took 20 million in bribe from each of the companies. Some top officials of Petrobanga subsidies, Titas Gas and Bapex were interrogated during the probe into the graft allegation.
Titas officials and contractors along with an influential quarter of politicians from different parties were involved in the illegal distribution networks. Titas Gas officials said they had previously faced opposition when they went to remove illegal gas distribution networks. Sometimes they were assaulted. Although thousands of illegal connections are yet to be disconnected, Titas authorities recently saw some success in removing over 11,000 feet of illegal gas pipeline in Dhaka and its adjacent districts. They obviously deserve kudos for the job.
After a three-year break, the government decided to allow new gas connections on May 7 last year. However, the government later said the gas distribution companies would not provide new connections to households where the companies did not have distribution networks.
It is common knowledge that fresh gas connections never stopped. An evil syndicate of corrupt gas sector officials, government policy-makers, gas contractors and illegal users kept it going on. Pilferage of gas from the system deprived gas companies of revenues and the gas crisis continued despite the addition of about 500 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) to the system. Power plants could not produce power up to their capacity, fertiliser factories remained shut down during irrigation season, gas supply to CNG fuelling stations required rationing, all genuine gas users suffered from poor gas supply.
Many got connections through paying, maybe, several times more money to the evil syndicates. They reportedly paid gas bills regularly. Why are they being asked to pay penalty again while the unscrupulous people are at large? More domestic consumers could be covered if only abuse of gas through illegal connections, meter tampering and clandestine gas theft by commercial and industrial consumers could be controlled.
The bottom line is that the government has failed to fulfil its election pledge of streamlining the gas system management and failed to supply gas to new consumers smoothly even after adding new gas to the system. People of Rajshahi, Kushtia, Jessore, and Khulna will continue blaming the government for not getting new connections. The reason is massive mismanagement by Petrobangla and its companies.
According to the Bangladesh Gas Act 2010, an illegal gas user can be given three months' to one year's jail term, and fined between Tk 10,000 to Tk 500, 000. This is a paltry sum. What is needed is a clean-up of the Augean stable.
shahana_bilkis@yahoo.com
Responsibility of illegal gas connections lies with Titas Gas
Shahana Bilkis | Published: April 18, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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