The disconnection of power supply to the Gulshan office of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia has been termed a violation of law and human rights, law professionals have said.
According to the Electricity Act 1910, power supply to a consumer can be discontinued only if the consumer fails to pay the bills for two consecutive months. That too cannot be done without serving a notice to the consumer at least 15 days prior to disconnection. The discontinuation can also happen if authorities find that a connection is illegal.
When contacted, Brig Gen Md Shahid Sarwar, managing director of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco), told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have been informed that the owner of the building [of Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office] has two months’ electricity bills due with the Desco. But I cannot tell you whether or not the power cut at Khaleda Zia’s office is a consequence of that.”
However, according to the Desco, the owner of the building has a four-year-old unpaid bill of Tk8,823 from the month of December 2010. He has also not paid the bill for December 2014, but the deadline for paying that bill has not expired yet.
When this matter was brought to the Desco MD’s attention, he refrained from making any comment. “The power supply will be reconnected if the consumer pays the dues on time,” Brig Gen Shahid added later.
Around 10:30pm yesterday, 18 hours after the power supply was severed, authorities restored electricity to Khaleda’s office. But land and mobile phone and internet services remained snapped until filing of this report around 10:45pm.
“Cutting off power supply to Khaleda Zia’s office is entirely a political issue. The cause of preserving consumer rights has not been considered here,” said Prof Samsul Alam, an adviser to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
Noted lawyer Shahdeen Malik said the authorities do not have any right to cut utility services if a consumer has paid all the bills, unless there is a clear argument that the services were being used for terrorism or against the country’s security.
“A 70-year-old woman, who has been prime minister three times, has been living in that place. How can the government possibly argue that she was doing terrorism?” Malik said.
“No matter what the government does, it has to stay within the purview of law. What the government is doing in this case is clearly beyond law,” the lawyer said.
Taqseem A Khan, managing director of the Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (Wasa), said last night that he could not tell whether or not the water supply to Khaleda’s office will be cut or not.
No phone, internet
The Bangladesh Telecommunication (amendment) Act 2010 allows the government to direct mobile phone and internet operators to suspend entire network services or that in a particular area if there are concerns about security threats.
According to sources, on Friday night, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) verbally requested all mobile phone and Wi-max operators to block the networks under which the Gulshan office falls.
In reply, the operators told the regulator that they cannot do so unless they are given the order in writing. Then, around 5am on Saturday, the regulator sent a written order to the operators by e-mail.
The e-mail, a copy of which the Dhaka Tribune has accessed, was sent from the Systems and Services Division of the BTRC.
It reads: “I am directed to instruct you to close all kinds of Communication [Mobile, Data, Land phone, Radio, etc] at House#06, Road#86, Gulshan-2 from now onwards till further instructions for obvious security reasons.”
Upon receiving that e-mail, the six mobile operators switched off a total of 60 of their base transmission stations (BTSs) in the Gulshan 2 area.
An operator can disconnect the land line to a particular house, but since that cannot be done with mobile phones, hundreds of thousands of residents in the area and the adjacent diplomatic zone have since been not able use their mobile phone and wireless internet connections.
Requesting anonymity, a senior executive of a mobile operator said: “The services cannot be suspended completely since those with satellite facilities and wi-fi networks, can access internet and other voice and data services.”
Among the base stations blocked, 20 belongs to the Grameenphone, 15 to Robi and 18 to Banglalink. The operators have also changed the direction of some of their antennas in the Gulshan 2 area.
Mushfique Chowdhury, a resident of Gulshan, told the Dhaka Tribune last night: “Despite repeated attempts, I have failed to connect an emergency call with a relative who lives abroad. This is very painful and I do not have any words to express my agony.”
