As many as 399 ex-MPs and six sitting MPs owe crores of rupees to the MTNL for the use of telephone over and above free calls allowed to them, a RTI has revealed.
RTI activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal suggests services like telephone, water, electricity, etc should be disconnected for non-payment of any single bill, like is being done in case of normal citizens.
In a response to Agrawal’s query, MTNL has revealed that 399 present and former parliamentarians have Rs 7.10 crores in unpaid telephone dues.
There are six sitting MPs in the list, including G.V. Harsha Kumar with Rs 2.06 lakhs in dues, Ram Sunder Das with Rs 9.49 lakhs, Bhakta Charan Das Rs 3.31 lakhs, M. Krishna Swamy Rs 3.19 lakhs, Harsha Vardhan with Rs 36,774 and Narendra Budhania with Rs 1.33 lakhs in unpaid telephone bills. Together, they owe some Rs 19 lakhs to the MTNL.
The list of former Parliamentarians also include over 50 of them who have passed away.
According to the RTI, former Rajya Sabha member Janardhan Jadav has the highest outstanding amount of Rs 22.29 lakhs, followed by Basava Raj Patil (Rs 17.2 lakhs) and K. Mohd. Khan (`15.28 lakhs). The other defaulters are G.C. Munda with Rs 12 lakhs in dues, M.H. Gohil with Rs 11.6 lakhs and Bahadur Singh with Rs 10.5 lakhs in dues.