Vigilance teams of different gas distribution companies disconnected over 7.69 lakh illegal gas lines across the country since January 2014, Nasrul Hamid, state minister for power and energy, told the parliament today.

The disconnected illegal gas connections include 768,836 were household, 459  commercial and 171 industrial establishments, the minister said in reply to a lawmaker’s query from the ruling Awami League MP Muhammad Mizanur Rahman.

In the scripted reply, the junior minister said the vigilance teams were engaged in carrying out the drive on regular basis so that the industrial factories cannot use gas at their respective factories illegally.

He said an inter-ministerial central committee led by an additional secretary of energy and mineral resources division, district committee led by respective deputy commissioner, and upazila committee led by upazila nirbahi officer were formed to prevent the illegal use of gas across the country.

Apart from this, magistrates, law enforcement agencies and gas distribution companies were engaged in launching joint drives to take action against the illegal gas lines in line with the gas distribution law following their first-hand visit in different areas, the minister said.