PDB has snapped over 300 electricity lines in the district in about a month till May 29 and realised Tk 25 lakh under a special driver, PDB sources here said.

It has fixed a target to realise Tk two crore arrear bills out of Tk 2.49 crore arrears by the end of current financial year.

Of the arrears, about Tk 1.90 crore is due from government, autonomous institutions and some industries and the rest is from residential and other small subscribers.

The arrears increased as most of the non-residential consumers including government and autonomous institutions do not care to pay bills, the source said.

Tow mobile teams have been deployed under the special drive.

Talking to this correspondent many residential subscribers said their lines were snapped for small arrears without prior notice but big defaulters are untouched. Even lines were snapped for non-payment of bills for two months only, they alleged.

The non-residential big defaulters include Magura municipality (80 lakh), Magura Textile Mills (55 lakh), Police Superintendent's office (25 lakh), Circuit House (11 lakh), Water Development Board (7 Lakh), Telephone and Telegraph Board (3.86 lakh), Sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer's office (2.60 lakh), Government Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy College (1.6 lakh), offices under Social Welfare Development (1.04 lakh), Vocational Training Institute (95 thousand), Primary Training Institute (86 thousand) and Sadar Hospital (55 thousand), according to PDB records.

Religious institutions like mosques, temples and churches owe a total of Tk 61 lakh.

When contacted, PDB Executive Engineer Hasan Ali Talukdar said, "We have already sent letters to the defaulting government and autonomous institutions for payment of their outstanding electricity bills."

He however denied the allegation that lines were snapped without prior notice. "Notice is written at the bottom of the bill issued every month", he said.

Other PDB sources said, they consider religious institutions like mosque, temple and churches as sensitive places and usually do not snap lines for defaulting bill payment.

They said relisation of arrears from government and autonomous institutions is a very time consuming and a difficult job. So, they have mainly targeted residential and small commercial consumers.