The consumers are in dire trouble as the Palli Biddyut Samities (PBS) are charging for the power lines though they cannot provide power supply even for a few hours a day. The PBS have huge financial liabilities to the government, to the tune of Tk 100 crore, caused by the unplanned expansion. The REB's total requirement is around 1900MW a day, but it gets only 500MW. The deficit is big enough for anyone to conclude that the organisation's planning had gone awfully wrong. There is also an allegation that ruling alliance elements supplied overpriced power distribution equipment needed for installation of new supply lines, they being the monopoly beneficiary of the business. This needs to be gone into.

The picture is a grim one and the limping organisation is none other than the REB which had a good image in the past for its role in supplying power to people in the rural areas. It was considered a success story. However, the situation that has arisen due to over-expansion of its distribution network is an example of how poor planning, or motives other than the ones that are legitimate, could spell disaster even for a well-managed organisation.

The predicament of the customers is quite manifest here: they have to pay for the service that they are not getting regularly. So people have the right to know why things have been allowed to degenerate to this point.

A REB official has said that "the government should have complemented the growth by adding at least another 800 (MW) to the national grid exclusively for the REB consumers." His point is of course relevant, all the more so after what we have witnessed in Kansat where non-supply of power created a law and order situation and finally cost so many lives.

The decisionmakers cannot afford to leave matters where they are. They must make sure that expansion of distribution network is matched by increase in power generation.