Low voltage electricity is a vexation for the people living in the hilly Khagrachhari district as many electronic appliances have either gone out of order or are not working properly.
Md Shahaz Uddin, a resident of Masterpara, said he and his family have been suffering for the last one month as the water supply motor stopped working due to the fluctuation in power supply.
He said: “A few days ago my refrigerator went out of order because of the low voltage of electricity.”
Repairing electronic appliances has become an extra burden for him. He blames his troubles on the negligence of the Power Development Board (PDB) authority for supplying low voltage power.
Swapan Chandra Devnath, a businessman at Khagrachhari Bazar, alleged that they could not operate most of their electronic equipment because of the low supply of electricity.
“The PDB authority sells power to other districts,” he said.
Managing Director of Limo Electronics Md Sirajul Islam said customers had returned many of their products which had stopped working due to the poor electricity supply.
“Even we cannot test many electronic parts or machines because of this situation,” he added.
Khagrachhari Panel Mayor ATM Rashed Uddin said they could not provide services to citizens as per their expectations.
“We cannot properly provide water to the townspeople as we often cannot run the pump because of the poor supply of electricity,” he explained.
When asked about providing illegal connections to neighbouring districts, the executive engineer of the Power Development Board denied their involvement with any such trade.
He said: “You people [reporters] should know that Khagrachhari gets electricity from Hathazari in Chittagong.”
“We need around 17-18 megawatts of electricity daily, but we get only 6-7 megawatts of power daily.”