Many telephone lines at the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) headquarters have been disconnected due to non-payment of telephone bills for the previous month.
The BBMP headquarters, which houses more than five buildings including the Council building, has more than 700 telephone lines. “As the bills were not paid, BSNL disconnected the lines about 11 days ago. On an average, we get a bill of `10 lakh per month. It is not that BBMP does not have funds, but the officials were busy in election duty and could not pay the bill,” sources said.
A senior BBMP official said, “We are using our mobile phones to make calls.” There is no problem with the BSNL mobile services. Bills are sent to the individual offices. “We submit bills to the Chief Accounts Officer, who, in turn, sends the cheque to the BSNL office,” he added.
The BBMP commissioner was not available for comment.