BBC News: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh will close schools for one more day each week and reduce office hours to ease an electricity shortage, a government official says.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Last month, the South Asian nation started daily two-hour power cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Protesters have taken to the streets in recent weeks after the government raised petrol prices by more than 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The war in Ukraine has driven up the cost of importing fuel and taken a toll on Bangladesh’s economy and foreign currency reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Monday, Bangladesh Cabinet Secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam said that schools – which were previously only closed on Fridays – would now also be shut on Saturdays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Under normal circumstances, schools in Bangladesh are open for six days a week – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, government offices and banks will have their opening hours cut to seven hours a day, instead of eight hours. However, private offices will be allowed to set their own operating hours, Mr Islam said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that the government would continue to provide power to villages, including in the early hours of the morning when crops are irrigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many parts of Bangladesh are known to go without electricity for more than two hours a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The country generates most of its electricity from natural gas, some of which it imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Officials have shut down all of the country’s diesel-driven power plants, which account for around 6% of Bangladesh’s electricity generation, because of the rising cost of fuel imports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n