For months, the online civic services of the Dhaka North City Corporations (DNCC) and Dhaka South City Corporations (DSCC) have remained non-functional, leaving City dweller in mounting predictions.
Key services including the issuance of birth certificates, mutation and registration of holdings, payment of holding Taxes, market rent and salami, wheel tax deposits, and trade licence issuance and renewal. have come to a halt.
Officials from both the city corporations’ revenue departments claim that the disruption is a “temporary suspension” caused by a shortage of skilled manpower. However, citizens allege the system has been deliberately disabled to enable illegal payments beyond official fees, hinting at corruption and irregularities.
A similar issue persists with the Local Government Division’s (LGRD) online certificate verification and issuance platform, prottoyon.gov.bd which has also been down for an extended period. The site, which once offered 46 services — including birth, death, citizenship, and inheritance certificates — no longer allows councillors or chairmen to issue citizenship certificates online.
Mirpur resident Ahmed Ullah said his attempt to apply for a new trade licence through the e-revenue system failed. “I eventually had to visit the DNCC regional office and pay an extra Tk 6,000 to submit my application,” he said, adding that it took two days for me to receive the licence. “With the online system down, citizens are once again subjected to harassment and bribery.”
Md Zobayer Hossain, Public Relations Officer of DNCC, claimed the services were still operational and said he was unaware of any suspension. He referred further queries to Assistant Programmer Engineer Juboraj Sarker, who declined to comment, but confirmed that “the service is currently inactive.”
Lawyer A B M Ibrahim Khalil from Old Dhaka reported similar treadles, saying he was forced to complete his work manually at the local DSCC office amid long queues.
Several city corporation employees, requesting anonymity, said the system for issuing new holding numbers had nearly collapsed.
“Even after submitting all necessary documents, applicants wait for months for updates,” one official said.
“Citizens pay Tk 10,000 for new holding numbers, but the data is not uploaded online. Since the collected fees can’t be deposited immediately, it creates financial risks.”
Efforts to contact Md Abu Taiyeb Rokon, Systems Analyst at DSCC, for comment were unsuccessful.
IT experts warned that the prolonged suspension undermines Bangladesh’s digitalisation drive. “Citizens are being pushed back into dependency on brokers and corrupt officials,” said one expert, calling for urgent server repairs, software upgrades, and recruitment of qualified technical staff.
Residents have demanded that the authorities restore online services promptly, noting that digital systems ensure transparency, save time and money, and reduce corruption.
