MUMBAI, July 25: Sitting and former members of Parliament together owe over Rs 8.5 crore to the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) in unpaid telephone bills. The Nigam claims it is prevented from taking action by the Central government.

This was revealed in an affidavit filed by MTNL in Bombay High Court on July 3 as reply to a public interest litigation. The affidavit stated that the issue of unpaid bills is pending with the central government and unless a decision is taken in this regard, the Nigam cannot disconnect the telephone connections of MPs for non-payment of bills.

In his petition filed on September 23, 1996 advocate M P Vashi had pleaded that the MTNL be ordered to publish a list of defaulters from amongst the VIPs including MPs, ministers, MLAs and others and disconnect their telephones as per the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act. The defaulters named in the petition include Sunil Dutt (Mumbai), Mukul Wasnik (Nagpur), Arjun Singh, Jayant Patnaik. The arrears ranged from a modest Rs 2 lakh to Rs 12 lakh. Vashi had listed over 107 such defaulters. While Dutt and Wasnik owed Rs 2 lakh each, Arjun Singh owed Rs 7 lakh and Dr Chinta Mohan Rs 12 lakh. Each MP is entitled to 50,000 free calls every year worth Rs 65,000 and any additional calls have to be paid from his/her pocket.

The MTNL affidavit stated that as per a Department of Telecommunication (DoT) note (November 26, 1983) an MP's telephone line cannot be disconnected for non-payment of bills. A few cases of outstanding telephone bills were sent for recovery in February 1992 to the Lok Sabha secretariat which resulted in the recovery of Rs 5.25 lakh. The Centre is yet to take a decision on a two-member panel's interim report, it said.

However, when contacted, S L Winston, MTNL, general manager (Mumbai, West I), said that Sunil Dutt had cleared his MTNL dues. But he could not confirm the sum of the outstanding, nor did he know when they were cleared.

``The telephones were not in Dutt's but in his family's name or some other enterprise of his,'' the MTNL spokesperson said.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.