State minister for environment Hasan Mahmud on Tuesday said that there might be a 'conspiracy' behind the ongoing protest against the government's contract with a US company for exploration and extraction of gas from two blocks in the Bay of Bengal.
He once again lambasted economist Anu Muhammad, who is the member-secretary of the National Committee for Protecting Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, for opposing the deal with oil giant ConocoPhillips.
'We are now facing acute shortage of gas. Our electricity generation is inadequate, industries cannot operate for lack of gas and even cooking in many households has been hampered,' Hasan told reporters at his office.
He said that there might be some conspiracy if anyone educated opposes gas extraction in the present scenario and said Anu Muhammad is a professor of economics and so he should not speak on any issues relating to geology.
Earlier on the day, a joint delegation from the European Union and Germany called on the state minister and discussed various projects on mitigation of the effects of, and adaptation to, climate change, and environmental pollution.
When reporters referred to the failure of the authorities concerned to protect the rivers surrounding Dhaka city from pollution, Hasan said that the government could not clean the rivers in two years as they had been polluted for over 60 years.
On Sunday, Hasan Mahmud castigated Anu Muhammad in the Parliament for calling hartal in protest against the production sharing contract that the government had signed with ConocoPhillips.
Digressing from the budget discussion, he railed against the economist, calling him 'Monu Mohammad', which drew the media's criticism.
He called the national committee a 'foreign agent and spy' which wanted to stay in the limelight by making an issue out of the contract signed with ConocoPhillips, which, according to the committee, gives only 20 per cent of the extracted gas to Bangladesh and allows the company to export the rest. This contract, said Anu Muhammad, will benefit only the US company, not the country.
He told the House that a professor of economics had no right to speak on oil and gas as he has no knowledge of mineral resources.
When asked whether parliamentary norms allowed him to criticize any outsider in the House who is not present to defend himself, Hasan said they could discuss anything in the country's interest.
Source : New Age
No comments:
Post a Comment