It has fixed a target to realise 1.5 crore bills by the end of the current financial year out of Tk 3.85 crore arrears.

Of the arrears, Tk 3.50 crore is due from government, autonomous institutions and some industries and the rest is from residential and other small customers.

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

Two mobile teams are in action under the special drive.

Many residential consumers this correspondent talked to complained that 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 Textile Mills (Tk 1.56 crore), Police Superintendent's office (Tk 40 lakh), Magura municipality (Tk 39.73 lakh), offices under Magura Civil Surgeon (Tk 2.24 lakh), Water Development Board (Tk 35 lakh), Magura district jail (Tk 5.83 lakh), Deputy Commissioner's office (Tk 5 lakh), Magura Primary Training Institute (Tk 2.73 lakh) Magura Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy Government College and Magura Government Women College (Tk 2.74 lakh).

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

When contacted, Executive Engineer Santosh Kumar Sadhukhan 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".

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

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