Staff Reporter :
Two mobile courts of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd disconnected 5,200 illegal domestic gas lines in Gazipur in the last two days.
Three thousand lines were disconnected in Kaliakoir on Wednesday and 2,200 in Sreepur upazila yesterday. The drive would continue, said Titas sources.
Titas officials with executive magistrate and police conduct illegal gas connection disconnecting drive round the year. The crackdown began after Titas’s deadline expired in February for households to cut the illegal connections on their own.
The drive to remove around 200km long illegal distribution lines aimed at supplying gas to around three lakh households in the capital and its adjoining districts like Narayanganj, Gazipur and Narsingdi.
Official of Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd of Chandra in Gazipur, said there were still 73 more illegal connections that supplied gas to 15,000 households in Kaliyakoir and parts of Gazipur Sadar Upazila.
Locals of Mouchak said that the illegal connections in Kaliyakoir area were given in broad daylight and some local ruling party men and people belonging to the BNP-led alliance helped people obtain illegal gas connections in exchange for money.
People who obtained the illegal connections said they had paid Tk 60,000 to 1.5 lakh for a single gas connection. A number of Titas officials were also involved in corruption, they claimed.
Md Nowshad Islam, Managing Director of the Titas, said no illegal lines would be spared during the drive. “We will conduct drives if the illegal lines are given again. The lines connected to the network of Titas Gas are totally unacceptable.”
The government stopped issuing new connections in mid-2010 following a daily shortfall of around 500 million cubic feet of gas.
However, late last year, the government made nearly one-lakh illegal gas connections legitimate.
