DAHKA — the country is going through a severe power crunch, it is relevant to ponder the steps that need to be very urgently considered to augment power production. There are, of course, two major sides to be considered. The major urban centres are all supplied by conventional electricity from the national grid. The rural areas where electricity is being provided, also depend considerably on supplies from the national grid. But the urban areas get top priority in such supply. Therefore, in the present power-starved conditions, the authorities are supplying the bulk of the insufficiently produced electricity to urban centres leaving the rural areas grossly undersupplied or not supplied at all. This situation would not arise if the rural areas became gradually self sufficient in producing electricity on their own and their best option in this regard would be solar power. A report in this paper last Saturday described how 50,000 people in the rural areas of Natore are being benefited from the use of solar power. Apart from the non-dependability of adequate supply from the national grid, there are many rural areas where it would take no one knows how long for power from the national grid to […]