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Opposition flays govt on telecom deals

The Opposition in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday lambasted the government for losing upto Rs 500 billion for offering migration package to private cellular operators and demanded probe into alleged "cartelisation" of optical fibre cable suppliers who they claimed were "looting" the nation.

Initiating a special discussion on the New Telecom Policy and its effects on licences and revenue generation, Congress leader P R Dasmunshi said the high rates of long-distance communication was subsidising the "so-called affordable" limited mobility telephony and asked the government to explain why it had not issued open tender on limited mobility.

He alleged there was no transparency in allocation of 'spectrum' to prospective players on a first come-first served basis, which led to a loss of Rs 140 billion to the exchequer.

Dasmunshi claimed a few companies had formed a cartel to bag "over half the tenders" on optical fibre and demanded that Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan appoint a committee to investigate it and book the culprits.

He alleged that the ministry was under "severe pressure" from the Prime Minister's Office on various counts including the controversial Sankhya Vahini Project and claimed that the Department of Telecom was "pressurising" the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider its views while making recommendations on various issues.

Countering the criticism, BJP member Maheshwar Singh complimented the government for expansion of telecom network in rural areas and reduction of charges substantially.

Roopchand Pal (CPM) accused the government of indulging in murky deals in relation to optical fibre orders and allocation of specturm and said that over Rs 500 billion had been condoned by it under the migration to revenue sharing from the licensing arrangement.

Demanding a thorough probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into various deals under the NTP-1999, he said the government had rendered telecom equipment PSUs sick under the name of liberalisation and privatisation.

While, complimenting the government for easy availability of phones in cities, TDP (Telugu Desam Party) member M V V S Murthy suggested that rural communication should be made mandatory for the private players in the telecom sector to ensure the success of NTP.

He urged Opposition parties not to pull down the government's efforts in the spread of communication network and said government could effectively guard against controversies of corruption by ensuring total transparency.

Ramjilal Suman (Samajwadi Party) asked as to what government was doing to recover dues of over Rs 37 billion from the private player and alleged that they were failing miserably on the front of rural connections assigned to them.

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