Darjeeling, Sept. 4: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today said it would start reconnecting outgoing facilities for subscribers who could produce receipts from April 2002 onwards.

The consumers had asked the BSNL to specify the period for which the receipts should be produced.

Faced with 2.5 crore of outstanding bills in Darjeeling alone, the BSNL has started disconnecting outgoing facilities to force the subscribers to pay up.

The move has irked several customers who claimed they were being forced to pay up twice for the same bill since some of the receipts were misplaced.

Major K.P. Malla, the secretary of the Consumer and Redressal Forum, alleged, “Customers are being harassed. Unfortunately, many of the customers are not at fault,” he said.

BSNL deputy general manager (finance) S. Prasad made it clear that it was not possible to restore facilities unless the receipts were produced.