Begusarai phone users are a harassed lot

begusarai: chaos reigns supreme at the local telephone office of the bsnl. phones are indiscriminately being disconnected by the local office on the ground of default in timely payment of bills. sources say that of a total 16,000 phones, as many as 2,600 have been disconnected. however, there are around 500 phone subscribers among them who have already paid their bills.of course, the connections of regular payees are restored after verification of their payment receipts, but only after telephone subscribers run from pillar to post to get their grievances redressed. it is stated that the bill payment account of the bsnl office here is incomplete and ill-maintained. interestingly, the phones of government officials have not been disconnected even though they owe hefty sums in bills to the bsnl. "what is my fault when i have made regular and up to date payment of bills," asked a subscriber amarnath singh, a teacher residing in the lohia nagar locality of the town, who was present at the telephone office the other day for the restoration of his phone connection. similar is the complaint of a number of consumers, including the retired principal of local g d college, b p singh. "what right does the office have to disconnect my telephone when there is no dues against my telephone no. 24555," asked vinod kumar sharma, a resident of sarvodaya nagar locality, who was standing in a long queue with all the payment receipts to get his connection restored. it is learnt that the billing system here is in a mess. since the creation of the khagaria telecom district about three years back, the telecom office here is virtually depending on duplicate bills which a subscriber has to obtain at his own initiative from the local office for payment. the khagaria telecom district office claims to despatch the bills to subscribers through post, but even ten per cent of the subscribers do not get the original bills. in some cases, the subscribers have not got their first bill even two years after getting the phone connection. "more than two years have passed since i got the connection, but i have not yet been sent even a single bill for my telephone no. 63882, said ram shrestha singh of ramdiri village. when contacted, khagaria telecom district manager (tdm) h s dwivedi admitted lapses on the part of his office in sending bills to subscribers on time. he, however, evaded the question what action would he take against his officials responsible for the agony and difficulties of the subscribers.