'Busy' ministers fail to take call on spectrum

The first meeting of the Group of Ministers, set up on the instructions of the prime minister to resolve the controversial issue of spectrum allocation and the vacation of this resource from the defence forces, has been postponed yet again.

This is because many of the ministers who are members of the GoM are currently busy with the assembly elections in the four states -- Tamil Nadu, Assam, West Bengal and Kerala.

"I am ready to discuss the issue, but other ministers who are part of the GoM are occupied with the state elections," Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the GoM, told Business Standard. The first meeting could, therefore, take place only after the elections were completed, he added.

Members of the GoM that was set up late last year include Information Technology and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Parliamentary Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Sources said some of the members have raised concerns over Maran's move to change the terms of reference for the GoM.

According to the sources, Maran has deleted the clause which stated that the GoM "will suggest guidelines to encourage and incentivise introduction of spectrum efficient technologies".

He has added to the terms of reference the  clause that the GoM "should" aim at generating resources of the spectrum allocation fund to fully offset the cost of vacation of spectrum. The earlier terms said the spectrum pricing policy "may" aim at revenue to offset the cost of vacation, sources added.

The GoM will have to confront the fact that the Department of Telecom has announced a new spectrum allocation policy without waiting for its recommendations on the issue.

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