Rampant siphoning of electricity by illegal power subscribers residing inside the premises of Mohakhali’s Institute of Public Health (IPH) has caused the electricity bill of the institute to skyrocket, as well as put a strain on the production of essential healthcare products.
Many of households inside the IPH premises have been set up without any proper permission, with all of them allegedly consuming electricity from the institute’s main power line.
As a result, the IPH has to bear the burden of the bill racked up by the illegal power consumers.
The Dhaka Tribune has learnt that the IPH currently has around Tk1.5 crore as outstanding bill to the Dhaka Electric Supply Company (Desco), which has repeatedly sent letters requesting that the bills be cleared off.
A Desco team has also visited the IPH twice in the past week to disconnect the power line.
However, the IPH is unable to pay the outstanding bill because of fund shortage, and the authority concerned has already sought Tk2.5 crore from the Health Ministry to meet various expenses including the outstanding electricity bill.
Seeking anonymity, several senior IPH officials told the Dhaka Tribune that the monthly electricity bill – averaging around Tk20 lakh – could be cut down by at least 40-50% if the illegal lines were disconnected.
Dr Subimal Sinha Choudhury, director of the IPH, told the Dhaka Tribune that he has sent official letters to the Desco officials for disconnecting
the illegal lines, adding that the IPH would provide necessary assistance in identifying the households that siphon power.
There are allegations that the illegal residences have been set up on the IPH premises by an unscrupulous section of health directorate employees, who use goons to collect utility bills from the residents, but keep the money in their own pockets.
Those living in the houses also allegedly use illegal gas connection to do their cooking.
With load shedding becoming frequent again during recent times, the IPH is facing a setback in its production of intravenous fluid, blood bags and diagnostic reagents.
The institute has reportedly asked Desco to ensure that there was no load shedding during daytime after 11am, as it needs uninterrupted power supply for manufacturing more than 7,000 bags of saline in the intravenous fluid section.
An official of the IPH said load shedding on April 23 caused around 1,000 bags of saline to become spoiled during production. Although the IPH has its own power generator, it reportedly does not run because of low gas pressure.
After taking office in January, Health Minister Mohammed Nasim had announced that a drive would be carried out at the IPH to evict illegal established; but that announcement was yet to be implemented.