Dhaka 23 August : Bangladeshi government offices are scheduled to reduce office hours in an effort to conserve energy, as the country grapples with an energy crisis according to a government official.The decision comes just weeks after the country increased prices for fuel to record levels amid the energy crisis in the world caused by Russia’s ongoing conflict with Ukraine as reported by the DPA news agency.
The Council of Ministers decided to reduce the hours of work by an hour per day.This is as per the Cabinet Secretary Khandaker Anwarul Islam.
“The new office hours start on Wednesday and will remain in position until the energy situation is more manageable” Islam said, without giving any indication of when the schedule could be restored to normal.
The banking hours have been set to 9 a.m.until 4 p.m.instead of 10 a.m.until 5 p.m., he said.
The Council also recommended that universities and schools introduce two weekends instead of one.
This month, a swath of activists protested against the government’s decision to raise fuel prices by up to 52 percent, which is the most in the history of the country.
The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which was the organizer of the demonstration in Dhaka on the 11th of August started its second nationwide protest against the government on Monday.
It was generally peaceful.
In the context of the new measures to cut costs the government has issued a power cut that will be rolling for a single hour per day and requested hundreds of mosques to stop using air cooling in the absence of prayers, and has imposed a ban on imports of non-essential goods, cut down on spending on development and requested officials to limit the use of vehicles in order to ease the pressure on reserves of foreign currency.
