BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said that people need electricity, but not for the cost of at the cost of Sundarbans.

“I had been in Khulna recentl. They don’t want Rampal power plant at the cost of Sundarbans,” Fakhrul said.

He was speaking at a round table discussion organized by Association of Engineers, Bangladesh (AEB) to present the keynote paper titled ‘Rampal Coal Power Plant Triple Jeopardy’ at the Institute of Engineers’ Bangladesh (IEB) in Dhaka on Monday.

Mentioning his party’s stand against Rampal power plant, he said, “We’re opposing the Rampal power plant as it’ll destroy our Sundarbans and put our national existence at stake.”

“We never compromise with the interests of people and our country, and we won’t allow anyone to do it either,” he added.

He also added that the UNESCO world heritage site, Sundarbans has made Bangladesh known all over the world.

Dhaka University Prof Asif Nazrul, who was present at the program, said that the government still could not give any satisfactory answer why a power plant is being implemented at Rampal, within closer range to Sundarban.

Mentioning that there is an effort to brand as anti-Indians those who speak against Rampal power plant, he said, “If Sultana Kamal, Anu Muhammad, Khushi Kabir, MM Akash are anti-Indians, it should be considered every citizen, except a few hundred people of this government of Bangladesh are anti-Indians.”