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Pay Rs 0, or else....

Prabhakar Joglekar of Pune is in a fix. He has to pay his telephone bill.

So what's new? There must be thousands of Indians who have the same problem...

Nope, not exactly. Because, you see, Joglekar's is a unique bill: for Rs 0. Yes, that's right, Rs 0! And the authorities have threatened to disconnect his telephone if he doesn't pay up soon...

Which, naturally, is making Joglekar tear his hair out. How do you go about paying Rs 0? Ask the Reserve Bank to print new notes, perhaps?

Inquiries, meanwhile, reveal that the error -- which lists three calls and no rental for his phone -- was due to 'programme failure' and would be 'rectified'. But till that happens, friend Joglekar runs the risk of having his connection terminated...