Assistant General Manager (AGM) Monir Hossain of Barhatta Palli Vidyut of Netrokona has been arrested by the police. A team of district intelligence police arrested him on Thursday night. He was handed over to Khilkhet police station in Dhaka on Friday morning.
Netrakona District Police Special Branch (SB) Additional Superintendent of Police (Media) confirmed the matter. Lutfar Rahman said, because there is a case against Monir Hossain, he was arrested from an area of Netrakona city around 9 pm on Thursday. Later handed over to Khilkhet police station.
According to the sources of the office of Netrakona Rural Electricity Association, recently rural electricity officials-employees protested for various demands including merger of Rural Electrification Board (REB) and Rural Electricity Association, implementation of uniform employment rules. 20 officials from all over the country including Monir Hossain, AGM of Barhatta Palli Vidyut, were dismissed from their jobs last Wednesday due to their involvement in the movement. They have been accused of destabilizing the power sector, disregarding the directions of the Rural Electrification Board and misbehaving.
Then on Thursday around 9:30 am Monir Hossain was arrested by the army and taken to the police station. However, he was released after a while. Since then, the angry officials-employees stopped the rural electricity service in Netrakona. Electricity supply was stopped from 9 am to 7:30 pm on Thursday in 10 upazilas of the district along with Dharmapasha upazila of Sunamganj. 6 lakh 35 thousand 253 consumers of rural electricity suffered in this. Apart from Netrakona, rural electricity supply was also stopped in various parts of the country.
Tapas Debnath, AGM of Netrokona Palli Vidyut Samiti said, "Our peaceful movement will continue until the officials who have been sacked and reinstated as soon as possible." Power supply was restored from 7:30 pm on Thursday in view of the public inconvenience. And senior officials of Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board are responsible for temporary public suffering. He demanded unconditional release of arrested Monir Hossain.
Engineer Masum Ahmed, General Manager of Netrokona Palli Vidyut Samiti said, I heard that Barhatta AGM Monir Hossain has been detained by the police. Rural power supply is now normal in Netrakona.
