People of nine affected villages at Barapukuria Coal Mining areas will lay siege today in the mining area to realise compensation from the government.

Nearly 12 lakh extremely poor people in 15 coastal districts of the country remain exposed to the fury of cyclone every year due to inadequate cyclone centre.

Majority of the people who lost their lives in the in the cyclone Aila that battered 11 coastal districts a few days ago belonged to the extreme poor bracket. They could not take shelter for their safety because of inadequate shelter.

The Government will appoint a surveyor firm within a month to assess the compensation of the victims of the Barapukuria Coalmine areas to establish the proposed coalmine city in Dinajpur, Energy Ministry sources said.

The Government has taken decision following recommendation of the eight-member committee, formed for assessing compensation of affected people of Barapukuria coal mining.

The process for establishing a coal-mining city comprising four thanas in Dinajpur will start this month.

The Ministry of Power and Energy has been mobilising Tk 40,000 crore to generate 5,000MW of electricity to reduce load shedding into a tolerable level within next four and half years during the term of the present government.

The ministry has placed its mega plan of power generation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office yesterday.

No remarkable improvement of power situation is seen in the ongoing summer season that causes huge suffering for the HSC examinees and Boro farmers. Residents and boro farmers yesterday experienced ten to sixteen hours electricity cut, according to sources.

There was 1,800MW of load shedding yesterday against the demand of 5,500MW, sources said.

The government is likely to allocate Tk 1,018 crore for Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry for exploration of gas and oil fields and development of existing gas distribution pipeline to provide better services to clients.

It will be a component of the annual development programme (ADP) for next fiscal.

The allocation will be Tk 228.97 crore higher than that of the ongoing ADP budget.

Two UK based companies have expressed interest to invest in proposed 450MW Power Plant at Bibiana in Habiganj which installation process was suspended last year during the period of the caretaker government as only one company participated in bidding.

The two UK based companies are the Independent Power Corporation PIC and the Christofferson Rob and Company.