Power outage severely affects life in Pabna

PABNA, Apr 23: Severe load shedding has gripped the people of Pabna district affecting especially the businessmen, town dwellers, Irri-Boro production and the students.
The Rural Electrification Board is getting only 45-48mw against the demand of 88-90mw power, an official of the board said.
Assistant Engineer Md Ziaul Islam of Pabna municipality said that town dwellers have been facing an acute shortage of power as well as water supply as the pumps cannot run properly due to random power outages, low voltage and drought.
Pabna Poura Mayor Kamrul Hassan Minto said that it is not possible to run all of the 11 water pumps by generators.
Mahbub-ul Alam Mukul, senior vice president of Pabna Chamber of Commerce and Industries said hospitals and clinics, industrial units, cold storages, residential hotels, restaurants, food shops, patrol pumps, cyber cafes, cable TV networks, newly introduced battery operated transports are the worst sufferers.
Md. Mostafizur Rahman, Deputy Director of Agriculture Extension Department (AED) said Boro production in the district is likely to face a setback as the farmers cannot smoothly operate their power pumps due to electricity crisis while lack of rainfall coupled with fluctuating temperature has worsened the situation. He also said they had a target of Boro cultivation on 60,335 hectares of land in nine upazilas of the district this season with a production target of 2, 31,529 tonnes. But the power crisis is hampering the production.