weekly holidays
Govt announces staggering factory holiday plan to save energy
The government has announced a fresh holiday staggering plan for area-based industries to minimise consumption of both natural gas and electricity.
The new plan was announced through a notification by the Ministry of Labour and Employment on Thursday.
The notification was issued as per provision 114 (2) of Bangladesh Labour Act, 2006, for the sake of interest of the people, said the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Download Gazette Notification Here
The new notification came in line with the recent announcement of State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid following his meeting with different business bodies on August 7.
After the meeting he said that industries across the country will remain closed one day a week under a fresh area-based load shedding plan.
Under a staggering programme an area-based factory holidays will be maintained to minimise consumption of both natural gas and electricity.
As per the gazette notification, industries of a certain area will remain closed for a day as holiday while other areas will remain open. In that case, from Friday to Thursday, each of the days will be applicable for keeping the industries closed in a certain area as holiday across the country instead of the currently applicable Friday and Saturday.
Officials of the Power Division said that the new rationing system will help save around 500-550 MW of electricity, he said.
The government earlier on April 12 had imposed a four hour gas rationing for industries across the country from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm daily to save natural gas.
Although the initial decision was to continue gas rationing for 15 days, the government withdrew it after 10 days of its execution amid protests from business enterprises.
During the meeting Nasrul said that the countrywide load-shedding will ease in September.
Also read: Go to people to explain fuel price hike, Cabinet asks Energy Division
“Load-shedding can come down to half from the current level in September and the country may get rid of load-shedding from October,” he added.
During the meeting the business leaders requested to provide uninterrupted electricity supply and keep the captive power plants outside the purview of tariff hike.
Under an ongoing austerity measure all the diesel-fired power plants are now shut and load-shedding is being implemented officially from July 19 to reduce diesel imports and save foreign currency.
Although area-based load-shedding was scheduled for one hour, it allegedly continued for three hours at a time in some city areas across the country.
Load shedding in rural and remote areas, however, stretched for more hours, consumers claim.
Markets and shopping malls can now stay open until 8:00 pm.
Also read: Diversified energy sector need of the hour'
The government also prohibited illumination in different social gatherings in community centers, shopping malls, shops, offices and houses since July 7.
2-day weekly holiday in all educational institutions from 2023: Dipu Moni
The government will introduce two-day weekly holiday in all educational institutions in the country from the next year, Education Minister Dipu Moni has said.
Dipu Moni came up with the announcement on Saturday while addressing the inauguration program of the new curricula of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).
“There are already two weekly holidays in universities and in some secondary and higher secondary level education institutions. We proposed two-day weekly holiday for the secondary and the higher secondary level educational institutions to the Prime Minister with the new curriculum plan.”
The PM later added the primary educational institutions in the plan, she said.
Also read: Covid-19 Advisory Committee to meet tonight to discuss reopening of educational institutions: Dipu
Sixty-two educational institutions which have been brought under the new curricula will get two weekly holidays from this year, she said.
Piloting of the new curricula will start in these institutions from February 22 with the reopening of the education institutions.
Dipu Moni said there might be faults and mistakes in the books inaugurated today as they have been published newly under the curricula.
“As the piloting begins, we will get feedback every week to determine success of our efforts with the new curriculum,” she said.
Also read: Educational institutions may be reopened at Feb-end: Hasina
About introducing technical education in all educational institutions, the minister said,” It will need a huge investment in the education sector as newn infrastructures like workshops, laboratories, tools will be needed to introduce technical education in all educational institutions.
“Already technical education has been initiated in 600 educational institutions. This will need to be done in phases as we have included the subjects of life and livelihoods in the new curricula,” Dipu Moni added.