It is the 1320 MW coal-based power project which is being set up at Ramphal in Bagerhat district close to the Sundarbans. The estimated cost of the project is $1.5 billion. The annual coal requirement will be about 4.5 million tonnes. No details of the source of the coal are available. The project, on which the Bangladesh Government is keen, is scheduled to be completed by 2016. The cost will be shared equally by Bangladesh and India (15 per cent each side). The balance 70 per cent will be raised through loans.

Those who are opposing the project fear that it will have an adverse environmental effect and damage the already threatened Sundarbans. A body named National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port has been set up. Among its various constituents are a number of Left-wing organizations including the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB). The Committee organized a ‘Long March’ on September 24 with the aim of ‘resisting this destructive project at any cost’.

The project is being implemented jointly by the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India. An agreement was signed by the two sides in Dhaka on April 22 this year. According to Taufiq-e-Elahi, Energy Adviser to the Bangladesh Prime Minister, the foundation stone laying ceremony for the project has been fixed for October 22, 2013. The resistance to the project has crystallized quickly, keeping this date in view.

Their opposition is based on a number of grounds. The first is that under Bangladesh law, no thermal power station (TPS) can be built within a radius of 15 kms from the Sundarbans while the Ramphal project is being set up only nine kms away from it. They have pointed out that in India, no TPS can be set up within a radius of 25 kms from any forest. Secondly, the project, spread over a sprawling 1,834 acres, will evict eight thousand farmer families, whose land will be acquired. But only abut six hundred persons would get employment and most of these will be skilled jobs for which the uprooted farmers are not qualified.

The third and the most important reason is that once completed, the thermal power station will generate three lakh tonnes of fly ash which will be very harmful for the Sundarbans. Also, five lakh tonnes of sludge or effluent. According to some Bangladeshi experts, the plant will daily emit 142 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and 85 tonnes of nitrous oxide “which would increase the concentration of the harmful gases in the air near the Sundarbans” which is regarded as a “critical ecological zone”. These figures are not accepted by all but the objections remain. What should worry New Delhi is a palpable undercurrent of anti-India feelings underlying the movement against the Ramphal project. Many believe it will benefit India more than Bangladesh. Comments from newspaper readers suggest they fear it is part of a plan by ‘imperialaist’ India to exploit Bangladesh. The fear is baseless but when a sharp political polarization is taking place in Bangladesh in the run up to the general elections scheduled early next year, the opposition BNP-Jamaat combine may make it a major campaign issue. They will also point out that it is not only they but segments of the Left, like the CPB, Bangladesh Samyavadi Dal, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal, People’s Front, New Democratic Left Front, Students’ Union, Revolutionary Students Solidarity, etc. are also opposed as well.

The propaganda mill of the BNP and Jamaat portrays Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is a tool in India’s hands, working against the interests of Bangladesh. They will not miss any opportunity to create anti-India feelings. It may be recalled that on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Dhaka visit in September, 2011, the opposition mounted an anti-India tirade by spreading the rumour that BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia would be arrested before the Indian Prime Minister landed in Dhaka. This was confirmed by Bangladesh Law Minister Qamrul Islam. Begum Zia was not arrested but the propaganda served the purpose of the opposition to whip up anti-India feelings.

Any opposition to any project or treaty or anything that involves India has, therefore, to be viewed in the larger context and its latent implications understood. It is no secret that fundamentalist forces are gearing up for the next poll and to them any stick is good enough to beat the Awami League and its leader with. Already they have let loose a reign of terror and violence that targets not only the Awami League and its supporters but also the Hindu minority, as is being reported daily by Bangladesh newspapers. (IPA Service)