DoT admits law min advice on 2G disregarded-12/11/10

DoT admits law min advice on 2G disregarded

Dhananjay Mahapatra, TNN, Nov 12, 2010, 01.37am IST


NEW DELHI: At a time when telecom minister A Raja is facing the heat on the 2G spectrum scam, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has added to his woes by acknowledging before the Supreme Court in an affidavit that the law ministry's suggestion to refer the procedure for allocation to an empowered group of ministers was brushed aside.

Though this was accompanied by a caveat, the acknowledgement buttresses one of the allegations levelled by a PIL by Centre for Public Interest Litigation that the telecom ministry had disregarded suggestions by both the law and finance ministries to refer the issue of devising a fair and transparent procedure of allocation, given the staggering number of applicants, to an EGoM.

However, the DoT has shrugged off the issue of its divergence with the ministry of law, saying that not much should be read into it as ``within different branches of government, sometimes different views are expressed and eventually a particular course of action is taken''.

It stressed that differences were "part of the normal functioning of the government and no action is questionable simply because it was not as per the suggestion of a particular department''.

It defended the decision to act unilaterally in the matter. ``It was felt that it was not necessary to constitute a Group of Ministers on such a procedural issue, since no policy issue was to be examined,'' the DoT said.

The Director General of Audit (P&T) has estimated that "...the correct value of 2G spectrum allotted to 122 licences in January 2008 and the 35 licences under dual technology, also in 2008, could have been determined only by a market-driven process, if adopted. However, its presumptive value, based on various indicators ranged between Rs 90,000 crore and Rs 1,40,000 crore''. It actually earned Rs 9,000 crore for the government.

DoT, however, defends itself against the allegations. Claiming that it had acted solely on the basis of the National Telecom Policy 1999 and the Unified Access Services licences decision taken by NDA government in 2003, the DoT in its affidavit said: "Ministry of law and justice has not given any advice regarding the policy in force for grant of UAS licences or the first-come, first-served issue. The sole question referred to the ministry was regarding the possible options to deal with the large number of applications in a fair manner, that is a purely procedural issue."

Referring to the November 27, 2007 query from the finance secretary raising several issues relating to the entry fee, the DoT said the concerns were addressed by the telecom secretary in his response on November 29.

"Thereafter, no further reference or communication was received and there was no difference of opinion between the two ministries,'' the DoT said. However, another note was sent to DoT on November 30, 2007 by the Member (Finance), but the DoT did not respond to it. It said since ``the same issue had already been answered by the telecom secretary by his letter of November 29, the subsequent note was treated as irrelevant''.

It also said that the minister had fully clarified on the concerns expressed by the Prime Minister in his letters of November 2, 2007 and December 26, 2007, informing him (the PM) that no departure from existing policies had been made. The Supreme Court has scheduled hearing on the PIL on November 15.

The petitioner can claim to have extracted a clear conclusion reached by the Director General Audit, who had said: ``The Prime Minister had stressed on the need for a fair and transparent allocation of spectrum, and the ministry of finance, and the ministry of law and justice had sought for the decision regarding spectrum pricing to be considered by an EGoM.''

"Brushing aside these concerns and advice, the DoT in 2008 proceeded to issue 122 new licences for 2G spectrum at 2001 prices, thus flouting all rules and procedures to be followed in a parliamentary democratic set-up,'' it had said.