Siliguri, Jan. 13: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has threatened to disconnect 5,000 telephone lines in the Siliguri Secondary Switching Area, if the defaulters do not pay up their outstanding bills, running into crores, by January 31.

“The department has to collect an outstanding amount of around Rs 10 crore from about 7,000 defaulters in the Siliguri SSA alone,” BSNL deputy general manager (finance), Siliguri Telecom District, S. Prasad told The Telegraph.

Siliguri SSA comprises Kurseong, Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Siliguri subdivision and some parts of Jalpaiguri district.

Of the 7,000 defaulters, 2,000 belong to government departments, which have been given time till March 31 to clear their dues.

That it means business is evident from the help the telecom utility has sought from the police to arrest those who have applied for new connections even as they owe huge amounts to the BSNL.

“We have information that several of the defaulters have not bothered to pay their bills even after their lines were permanently disconnected. Instead, they have applied for new connections under new names,” Prasad said.

“We have sought police help to realise the outstanding amount from subscribers whose telephones have been permanently disconnected. We have submitted a list of 150 such defaulters, most of them residents of Siliguri town. The police administration has been requested to gather specific information on their whereabouts and also find out whether these people have taken any other telephone connection,” he added.

The department had launched a “revenue collection drive” in September last year. “The total outstanding amount then was around Rs 11 crore,” Prasad said.

Since then, 9,000 telephone lines have been disconnected. “Of the 9,000 telephones lines disconnected since September last year, 4,000 have been reconnected after the payment of dues,” said Prasad.

Rajeev Mishra, additional superintendent of police, Siliguri, said: “We will be helping the department in every possible way. Necessary action will be taken against those guilty of flouting laws.”

A large number of offenders are subscribers from Siliguri, Darjeeling, Kurseong and a handful of remote pockets in the Siliguri SSA. “We have also identified some public call offices, 10 in Siliguri town, which fall in the list of major defaulters,” said the telecom official.

“The first disconnection will be a temporary one. If within three months the dues are not cleared, the lines will be permanently cut off and the subscribers will face legal action,” Prasad explained.

“If we are disconnecting, around 1,000 telephones daily, we are also restoring around 100 lines each day,” he assured.

The department is also looking forward to the installation of the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) software, which is expected to ease the burden of the department. The system enables the subscriber to know his outstanding amount over the telephone even before the bill arrives.