New Delhi: Reliance Power on Tuesday said Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved debt financing and partial risk guarantees totalling USD 583 million to develop its 750 MW power plant and LNG terminal project in Bangladesh."The Board of Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved debt financing and partial risk guarantees totalling USD 583 million (approx Rs 3,748 crore) for 750 MW LNG based combined cycle power plant and LNG Terminal project being developed by the companys subsidiaries in Bangladesh," Reliance Power said in a BSE filing.The project, which includes a power generation China PPR ELBOW Suppliers facility to be located in Meghnaghat near Dhaka and an LNG Terminal near Kutubdia Island south of Chittagong, will significantly increase power generation and improve energy infrastructure in Bangladesh, ADB said.ADBs financing package includes loans and partial risk guarantees for the power generation facility, as well as for the LNG terminal. Total project cost is approximately USD 1 billion.ADBs partnership with Reliance Power will help Bangladesh scale up its energy infrastructure to sustain and support the countrys economic growth. Said Michael Barrow, Director General of ADBs Private Sector Operations Department.ADBs role as a direct lender and guarantee provider will enable Reliance Power to mobilise much needed long-term debt financing and help attract new lenders to Bangladesh.Reliance Power in a statement said that diversifying Bangladeshs sources of energy is critical for the country as demands for natural gas have placed significant pressures on the countrys domestic gas reserves.New LNG import facilities will enable the countrys existing gas-department infrastructure to remain viable while opening the country to access natural gas from global markets, it added.The company further said that the ADBs support will help Reliance Power Ltd to develop an initial approximately 750 megawatts (MW) of gross power generation capacity and terminal facilities for LNG import. Reliance Power plans to increase its power generation capacity to around 3000 MW in Bangladesh.Energy from the power plant will be sold to the countrys electricity grid under a long-term power purchase agreement with the Bangladesh Power Development Board."Reliance Power has achieved a major and important milestone of approval of financing for its landmark project in Bangladesh. This is an important step in helping Bangladesh achieve energy security," said Venugopala Rao, the CEO of Reliance Power.Shares of the company were trading 0.27 per cent lower at Rs 36.65 on BSE this afternoon.

　　There is something about men of God that lesser mortals like us ought to know. Those who claim to speak on behalf of God typically don’t rely on the Almighty to bail them out when they are in trouble. While here on earth, and in positions of power, they make sure they are plugged into other networks of power — like politicians, police officers, other senior bureaucrats, influential lawyers, business tycoons and so on.The powerful often flout the law because they know they can get away; the club of the powerful look after each other. These ties come in handy. That is the secret code of power. It applies as much to those wielding power in the religious sphere as in any other.Everyone who wields power is not a criminal. But those in power often abuse power in very many ways, as is clear from the recent slew of men who claim to speak on behalf of God getting embroiled in rape cases.Rape is about power. It has nothing to do with sex or sensuality. Religious leaders behave like any other power abuser. It is naïve to think they are a different breed. Being in the God business only gives them added protection.Take the case that has been in the news — Kerala’s nuns and an allegedly predatory bishop. The nuns have been out in the streets, protesting, waving placards that demand the arrest of a bishop who has been accused of rape by one nun. It is hard to imagine that in a state battered by severe floods just a month ago, the nuns’ protest in Kochi would gather such momentum. But with every passing day, it is becoming a bigger story, and activists and writers have shown solidarity by joining in. A group of priests have also started supporting the protest by the nuns and have demanded the arrest of the bishop, who had applied for anticipatory bail when reports last came in.

　　In the eye of the storm is Jalandhar Bishop Franco Mulakkal. The protesters allege he had raped a nun several times between 2014 and 2016. It is a fast-moving story with new developments almost every day, but the critical elements follow a familiar plot.The church leadership is in the dock for not heeding the complaint. The nun filed a police complaint in June. The police is also in the dock for having gone slow for quite some time. Now, police officers have told the Kerala high court that their preliminary investigations reveal that the bishop allegedly abused his position and raped the nun on multiple occasions between 2014 and 2016. The police have quizzed the complainant and several witnesses. They claim they are not going slow, and there have been discrepancies in the various statements. At the time of writing, there has been no arrest.The matter is now in the courts. How this particular saga will end is not yet clear. But it is evident that taking on a powerful bishop is not easy.If a bishop is in the dock today, in the not too distant past, there were Guru Ram Rahim and Asaram Bapu. For years, both got away with abuse of power, including multiple rapes, and it took tremendous courage for their victims to ultimately expose them. It is good that even in a country where self-styled godmen routinely leverage the blind faith that millions reposed in them to develop cosy relations with votebank-obsessed politicians, sometimes the long arm of the law catches up. Asaram has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a minor girl. Last heard, he had sent a mercy plea to the Rajasthan governor, seeking reduction of the punishment on grounds of old age. In the Asaram case too, the police had come under fire for going slow. The Supreme Court pulled up the Gujarat police for delaying completion of the recording of evidence in the rape case against the self-styled preacher, now lodged in Jodhpur jail.