Cumilla-4 Member of Parliament Hasnat Abdullah has questioned whether the energy minister can see the long queues of vehicles at petrol pumps and the gradual shutdown of fuel stations across the country.
Raising the issue during the question-answer session of the first parliament session on Thursday afternoon, Hasnat addressed Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud.
“We are seeing that pumps are gradually shutting down. Today, pumps in Sylhet have shut down,” the MP said.
“We see long queues of vehicles on the roads, and we repeatedly see that everyone is not receiving the expected service. The unfortunate thing is that the government is avoiding this issue,” he added.
Abdullah alleged that instead of acknowledging the problem, the minister continues to avoid it, noting that such a tendency is being seen among ministers.
“Can’t he see the long queues of vehicles and the pumps gradually shutting down? Service activities are being disrupted. Schools are closing. When will he properly solve this problem, and will he acknowledge the problem?” he asked.
In response, Energy Minister Iqbal Hasan Mahmud said the government is supplying the same amount of oil to each pump as before, but demand has suddenly increased following the Iran incident.
“Because sales have increased, the amount of oil we used to supply to a petrol pump would take one or one and a half days to sell. Now it is finished within two hours,” he said.
The minister attributed the queues to public panic, asserting that it was not true that petrol was not being supplied.
“Petrol is supplied every day,” he said.
On gas shortages, Iqbal Hasan Mahmud said the country’s gas transmission lines are very old, and due to reduced gas extraction, pressure has decreased.
“Sometimes gas does not reach the lines. We have taken up a project, but it takes time to implement,” he added.
