MPs' incorrigible default

Members of Parliament, both of the ruling and opposition parties have had the unique privilege of the government of the day staying away from realising their outstanding telephone bills. This is perhaps the only conclusion one can draw from the telephone bill arrears piled by members of different parliaments during the last 31 years. None of the governments took any effective measure to realise the outstanding usage charges. Here is perhaps one area where a covert consensus between the ruling and opposition parties existed. Even though there may have been a more pronounced dodging tendency among the ruling party MPs compared to those of the opposition, the cumulative default overtime happened to be the creation of MPs from both sides.

Are we fast reaching a point where telephone bills will have to be written off like they are doing in the case of bank loans in the classified category remaining unpaid for five or more years? That is a sad commentary on the elite ruining the national economy through their privilege-play. In the particular case of the MPs evading payment of telephone bills, how do the people view it? Well, they think that those who were elected as lawmakers are breaking law. Moreover, the very fact that they are doing it with impunity while ordinary defaulters' telephone lines are disconnected with much less telephone bill in arrear, is clearly a negation of the fundamental principle that all are equal before the eye of law.

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Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) seems to have no other authority than to merely send notices for payment of outstanding bills to the MPs. There should be some authority and some mechanism to make sure MPs paid their bills.