Maungdaw, Arakan State: Residents of Maungdaw town are having problems consuming electricity due to the high costs, said a local resident of Maungdaw.

“Since January 2010, we are unable to use electricity in our house as the District Peace and Development Council (DPDC) of Maungdaw is charging us 16 times more per unit cost than last year,” the local resident said.

“Last year, we paid 25 kyat per unit and every resident was able to use power at night as per the electricity department schedule, but, after DPDC’s intervention, we are paying 400 kyat per unit and 2000 kyat as management charges, which are more than 5000 kyat per month,” said a school teacher in Maungdaw.

We paid 25 kyat per unit under the Department of Electricity last year and after DPDC took control, the residents are paying 400 kyat per unit, which is 16 times more than before. But, the DPDC is supplying electricity every day from 19:00 hour to 22:00 hour.

A management committee was set up under the DPDC, which checks meter boxes and seizes meter boxes if they find any and charge a huge amount from residents, said a student in Maungdaw.

On January 9, 2010, the committee seized the meter box of Maungdaw big Mosque for delaying opening the gate because of absence of mosque caretaker and released the meter box after three months, taking 50,000 kyat as fine, the student said.

“We can’t use more bulbs due to the high cost and the power comes in a low voltage,” said a daily laborer. “If we don’t use the electricity, the committee will seize our meter and we will never get it back.”

The system is managed by the DPDC chairman U Htun Naing Lin, who always asks residents to support the management committee.