BD Rahmatullah, Energy expert and former Director General of Power Cell: It is quite difficult for the ordinary people to disappear 150,000 tonnes of coal. The coal missing from Barapukuria is a large-scale corruption.
It will take 30,000 trucks, each with a capacity of five tonnes, to transport the huge quantity of coal. It is not possible overnight. The laborers will refuse to do the uphill task. The coal fraud is impossible unless the high-ups have a hand in it.
People are alleging that the coal vanished over a long period. The act of theft is a long planned one. A question has naturally arisen here: why the coal got stolen? The answer is very simple. The coal is in high demand in the market because of its high quality.
A subsidy of Tk 11,000 per tonne coal is given to the Power Development Board while the coal sells Tk 17,000 per tonne in the market. It is a theft of a monumental scale. Who can resist the temptation of a huge amount of money? Could they (culprits behind the scam) line their pockets by selling them to the PDB?
Not even the Managing director of the company has the strength that he can digest the huge he quantity of coal worth around Tk 250 crore. The stolen money has been divided among many people including the Chairman and the mine laborers.
It is now a matter of investigation as to who are behind the massive corruption. Stealing of 1.5 lakg tonne of coal worth Tk 250 crore means that the big guns behind the crime. It took six months to smuggle the coal. The theft began when a crook was in-charge of the company. The crook was replaced by a gentleman who has falsely been implicated in the act of theft. Alas! An accused in a case of the Anti Corruption has been tasked with investigating the scam. The probe and the audit will be just a cloak.
Based on an interview by Ashiq Rahman, Translated by Hossen Sohel