Threatening a counter-campaign against the opposition, Sibal said BJP was only showing rigidity on the issue and was not actually keen on a solution.
With the possibility of the parliament logjam over the demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the second-generation mobile telephony spectrumscam continuing in the budget session, telecom minister Kapil Sibal said on Thursday he would take the fizz out of the opposition campaign in the next week itself. “Instead of white lies, there will be truth,” he said.
Threatening a counter-campaign against the opposition, Sibal said BJP was only showing rigidity on the issue and was not actually keen on a solution.
“While saying no to JPC, we have given them several alternatives — PAC [probe by parliament’s public accounts committee], special session of parliament, debate, etc, — but they have turned down all and are adamant on JPC,” he said.
“In fact, the government is already taking corrective measures that a JPC would have recommended six months later. We have recovered Rs93 crore of the Rs219 crore which were [lost due to] violation of licensing conditions. We have already cancelled licences. What more do you want?” Sibal said.
The minister said he would now go to the people’s court. “Since BJP is not allowing parliament to function, we have to go to the people directly and tell them the truth. In about week’s time we will explain the entire gamut of 2G mobile bandwidth 2001 onwards, who changed the policy, why was it changed, the revenue-sharing formula, loss to the government when licensing was moved to revenue-sharing, financial gain to people, gains to customer, etc,” he said, referring to the report of a one-man committee expected to be submitted next week.
It is may be noted that the BJP-led NDA government was in power during 2001-04 when major policy changes took place in the telecom sector.
The one-man committee of former Supreme Court judge Shivraj V Patil is examining the appropriateness of procedures followed by the department of telecommunications (DoT) 2001 onwards. Patil has said he would make an effort to come out with his findings within a month, but he has not been set a deadline to submit report.
The terms of reference of the committee are “to study the circumstances and developments in the telecom sector that led to the formulation of New Telecom Policy 1999 and subsequently, introduction of the 4th cellular telecom mobile service licence in 2001”.
The committee is examining intra-departmental procedures followed by DoT during 2001-2009 for issuing telecom access service licences and allocating spectrum.
The UPA government is trying to get the report at the earliest, so that it can clear the air on mobile bandwidth and move on.
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