In their response, the Central Public Information Officer (CPIO) and General Manager (Administration), BSNL (Bhopal) said that Ahirwar had furnished an undertaking to pay for calls that exceed the quota of free calls.

“Accordingly, telephone bills of excessive calls were issued to him regularly. However, he did not pay the amount of these bills. Many reminders were issued to him in this regard,” the CPIO told the CIC.

The MP was allotted two telephones — one in Delhi and the other in his constituency. One lakh free local calls were permissible per annum on the two telephones together, as per the rules under the Salary and Allowances of Members of Parliament Act, 1954. Trunk call bills were adjusted within the monetary equivalent of the ceiling of one lakh local calls. Members whose constituencies are 1,000 km away from Delhi, however, are allowed 20,000 additional free local calls. The Arbitrator had on March 20, 2003 found truth in the claim of the telephone department and directed Ahirwar to pay up his dues within three weeks.

Ahirwar’s subsequent plea that his dues be recovered from his ex-MP’s pension (a minimum of Rs 3,000) was not acceded to by the department, which found the pension amount “very meagre”, the CPIO had told the CIC.

“The appellant (Ahirwar) is unnecessarily dragging the issue and depriving BSNL of its revenue — a loss to the national exchequer,” the CPIO told the CIC, adding that a recovery procedure of the dues was pending in a fast-track court at the former MP’s constituency, Sagar.