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Defeat the culprits now
Added: (Tue Jun 17 2008)
Notoriety and anti-state activities should also have some limit. But, if someone will see the actions of the most controversial newspaper in Bangladesh named the Daily Star, which continues to do anything to put Bangladesh’s economy and prosperity in jeopardy, it will become crystal clear that the key intension of this notorious newspaper is always to screw various potentials of Bangladesh as well as behave like a lap dog of foreign and local vested interest groups.
Let us all remember that Daily Star is the newspaper, which was behind a very controversial anti-Islam cartoon published in one of its vernacular publications several months back, which generated tremendous reaction in the minds of faithful Muslims. Many analysts even opine that, such publication of cartoon by Daily Star affiliate publication was originally designed to hamper law and order situation in the country, with the ulterior motive of putting the present military backed interim government in Dhaka in trouble. Such nasty actions were a part of many conspiracies of The Daily Star, when the government listed its owner Latifur Rahman as a corrupt person and issued notice on him asking statement of wealth. According to various facts, Latifur Rahman never submitted such statement defying the laws of the land.
On 15th of June 2008, Daily Star published a front page report titled “Unsold rocks dead weight on project”, which is once again written by the ‘journalist’ of the newspaper, who in past, showed numerous instances of his either naive ness or notoriety with the only hard rock mining project in the country. It is well understood by all that; Daily Star has taken the agenda not only of sabotaging the project, but also putting both Petrobangla and the Ministry of Energy in Bangladesh in trouble by ultimately pushing the fate of the project into uncertainty. It is learnt from numerous sources that, the very controversial piece appeared in The daily Star was written by Shariar Khan with the hidden support of one Rois Siddiqui (who although retired from the Maddhapara Hard Rock Mining Company Limited but continues to hold the post) and one Aminur Rahman, who represents controversial consultancy firm named Kopex. Once the Daily Star article is properly examined, such conspiracies will become crystal clear to all.
Let me try to mention at least some of the paragraphs of that questioned and ill-motivated article with my own opinion.
In the article, Shariar Khan wrote, “Although the country annually consumes 60-70 lakh tonnes of imported rock, MGMCL's rock is failing to attract even the government-owned rock buyers.
"Unless the company gets a permanent customer like Bangladesh Railway or the Roads and Highways Department, the MGMCL will be facing deeper financial crisis in future," said a competent source. Bangladesh Railway alone consumes 15-20 lakh tonnes of rock.”
Here Khan has endorsed in the article that Maddhapara hard rocks are yet to be purchased by major government projects. Why? Because, some vested interest groups are active in selling imported rocks to those project at the rate of US$ 22-27 per ton by giving heavy compensation to the officials concerned, while the hard rock extorted from Maddhapara project is already available for just US$ 15 per ton. By purchasing imported hard rock, Bangladesh is losing US$ 7-12 per ton, thus making the total amount of annual loss to a few hundred million dollars. It may be mentioned here that, Bangladesh consumes more than 79 million tons of hard rock every year.
Shariar Khan wrote, “An official of the mining authority said, "Namnam has installed a crushing and sorting plant that sorts and crushes rock inappropriately leaving those undersized." He added that since the plant was installed the MGMCL has repeatedly requested Namnam to change the design.”
Now, a source in the concerned department confirmed that, no such request was ever made by MGMCL to Nam-Nam for changing the design. In fact, the consultant of the project approved the design, and now their agent (Aminur Rahman) is continuously trying to give an impression that, the project was completed with various problems, which in fact is a trick by some vested interest groups to blackmail both the contractor and the employer of the project. Polish company Kopex’s agreement as consultant has already expired and it is a question of many within the Energy Ministry, Petrobangla and the MHMP as to how Aminur Rahman continues to sit in the office of MHMP and exerts notorious influence in ultimately sabotaging the project. It is also learnt that, Aminur Rahman, Rois Siddiqui and other notorious elements within the employer’s part are receiving heavy amount of bribe on a regular basis with the assignment of hampering the smooth performance of the project as well sabotaging it, allowing exporters-importers syndicate in cashing huge amount of money by selling rocks at an exorbitant price to Bangladesh.
Advocating in favor of Kopex (reason behind is by now understood by my readers), Shariar Khan wrote, “On the other hand, Kopex's consultancy ended last year following some bureaucratic bottleneck. Therefore, this issue remains totally in the dark.”
In fact, Kopex has no previous experience of working as the consultant of any hard rock mining project in the world. The consultancy work was assigned to this questioned company because of tremendous lobbying by some vested interest group during previous days. Now the Daily Star reporter is attempting to put the blame on the ‘bureaucrats’, although majority of the people in the Energy Ministry, Petrobangla and MHMP are actively contributing in making the Maddhapara Hard Rock Mining Project as a model for Bangladesh.
Because of Maddhapara Hard Rock Mining Project, Bangladesh is already saving huge amount of foreign currency from the import of rocks from foreign countries. Previously (before the project was initiated), price of each tons of hard rock was US$ 64, while now the price has come down to US$ 22-27. This is an excellent example of the influence of this project in forcing the exporters in reducing price of their exported rocks to Bangladesh. But, of course, the exporters-importers syndicate is extremely unhappy over such situation as MPHMP has greatly sliced off their profit stake from such virtual monopoly business. As we know, Bangladesh consumes above 79 million tons of hard rock each year, and if there was no MPHMP, the entire quantity should have been based on import. In this case, by importing rocks at the price of US$ 64, Bangladesh would have spent US$ 505,600,000 plus dollars each year. But due to this project, even if Bangladesh needs to import the entire volume, it will require to spend US$ 173,800,000 only, which is almost five times lower. For a developing country like Bangladesh, such amount can never be ignored. Whatever the propagandists are saying about MPHMP, it is already a documented fact that this project is not only helping Bangladesh in extorting its own rock, but also helping the nation from saving huge amount of foreign currency every year.
Present government in Bangladesh needs to consider this issue with due urgency and needs to sit with potential partners in finalizing similar projects in Bangladesh, so that, Bangladesh will never need to depend on import in getting hard rock for its domestic requirement. On the other hand, government also needs to remain vigilant on ongoing conspiracies against the Maddhapara Hard Rock Mining Project and should shut the doors and windows for any sabotage attempt by vested interest groups, including culprits in Daily Star. There is no confusion or doubt in apprehending the fact that this English language newspaper is behaving like a wolf in killing a most prospective project of the nation. Mighty Bangladeshis should get set for combating such culprits. Members of patriotic forces in Bangladesh also need to take urgent measures in investigating all such conspiracies centering the Maddhapara Hard Rock Mining Project and identify the culprits to uproot them completely in national interest.