Thousands of residents in Sitakunda, Chattogram, have faced severe difficulties after a central server failure disrupted the prepaid electricity system for two consecutive days. The outage has affected around 40,000 customers from Kumira to Darogahat, leaving many unable to recharge their meters through mobile banking services. Although money is being deducted from users’ accounts, the amounts are not being added to their meters, and no recharge tokens are being issued.

Local reports indicate that many customers have repeatedly tried to recharge without success, forcing some to rely on emergency loan features to maintain temporary power supply. Families with children, elderly, students, and sick members are reportedly suffering the most as daily activities, education, and healthcare face disruption. Residents have criticized the lack of an effective backup system for such a vital digital public service.

Officials from the Barabkunda residential electricity office confirmed the issue, while the Bangladesh Power Development Board’s regional chief engineer said efforts are underway to restore the server soon. Observers have called for stronger backup and risk management systems to prevent similar crises in the future.