Remove institutional ‘lock-in’

The Rural Electrification Board (REB), which provides electricity services to 140 million consumers in rural areas of Bangladesh, has long suffered from institutional “lock-in.” Institutional lock-in refers to a situation where an organisation or an entire sector operates more on top-down command than on institutional practice, which ultimately hampers its normal functioning and obstructs necessary reforms or adoption of new technologies due to mismanagement.

According to media reports published on Saturday (May 31), REB supplies 57 percent of Bangladesh's total electricity. It plays a crucial role in the country’s economy, especially in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. Discussions about reforming this critical sector have been ongoing for the past 20 years, yet no real progress has been made—making it a textbook example of institutional inertia.

To resolve the existing crisis between REB and the Palli Bidyut Samity (PBS), PBS workers have been staging a sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar since May 21 to press their seven demands. The government is yet to take any visible steps to resolve the crisis even after the protest, maintaining uninterrupted power service, entered its tenth day on Friday (May 30). As a result, the protesters have declared that their movement will continue.

In January 2024, issues within PBS came to public attention for the first time through protests by its officers and employees. They openly pointed out that the materials used in the power distribution network are substandard. According to them, during storms or rainfall, the power lines fail, and restoring them takes a long time. This often leads to disputes between consumers and PBS staff, and sometimes, the workers are even subjected to physical assault. However, when those who ensure electricity for nearly 140 million people raised these legitimate concerns, the authorities responded with dissatisfaction.

The matter attracted the public attention again on October 17, 2024, when PBS workers symbolically cut off power supply for two to three hours in different parts of the country. Seventeen workers were arrested at the time. Some were even labeled as “collaborators of autocracy.” Notably, during the Hasina administration, many who were previously labeled “anti-development” or “traitors” are now being called “autocracy’s collaborators.” This implies that successive governments have politically coloured the legitimate demands of PBS workers.

The most recent wave of protests sparked on May 20 after over 2,500 employees were either fired, suspended, stand-released, or transferred in a single month. A significant number of these were essential field-level linemen. The transfers were so indiscriminate that even a deceased person received a transfer order. While REB claims the transfers were part of the reform process, it is clear they were not based on institutional necessity.

In Bangladesh, an unfortunate and degrading trend has taken root—anyone expressing a dissenting opinion or discussing the need for institutional reform is slapped with a “political tag.” If we cannot break free from this process of criminalising dissent, we cannot move forward.

A proper investigation should be conducted to assess what problems actually exist within PBS and what kind of reforms are needed. Dismissing workers for voicing demands is not the hallmark of a democratic society. Power sector experts say that many of the workers’ demands are valid and deserve serious consideration. According to a 2020 workshop report from REB on power outages, 68 percent of electricity disruptions occurred not for shortage of power generation but due to the use of substandard materials in the rural power distribution system. If this is true, urgent and immediate reforms in rural electrification and removal of institutional lock-in are necessary. We urge the government to take the demands of PBS workers seriously and act with due urgency.