Will the prized communications ministry be bifurcated into telecom & postal, and information technology, under two ministers?
Will the prized communications ministry be bifurcated into telecom & postal, and information technology, under two ministers? There’s a growing buzz that such a possibility cannot be ruled out. A similar bifurcation could be likely in the surface transport and shipping ministry, sources said.
Such a redesigning of portfolios in key infrastructure sectors is perhaps being worked out to resolve the face-off between the Congress and the DMK.
Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Department of Post (DoP) and the Department of Information Technology (DIT) fall under the Communications ministry, with a single minister in charge.
While the DMK, an ally of the Congress, wants A Raja and TR Baalu to retain the portfolios of communications and surface transport & shipping, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is against it. Failure to meet targets, specifically in telecom and surface transport sectors, and controversies linked with Raja and Baalu are the main reasons behind the PM’s resistance.
If telecom and IT are actually bifurcated, as is being speculated now, a DMK minister would probably get the IT portfolio while telecom could be allocated to another. Similarly, shipping could go to a DMK minister, while surface transport could be given to another.
Raja, who was the communications minister during the UPA regime, has been under the scanner ever since he allowed entry of new players into the telecom sector by giving away spectrum (a scarce resource) without a process of auction. Estimates suggested a loss of Rs60,000 crore to the national exchequer as Raja did not go for an auction, which had been suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
As for Baalu, he’s being seen as responsible for the slowdown in the highway programme. The UPA government could not meet the target for most of the highway projects. Frequent top-level changes at the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), ordered by Baalu, also contributed to the slowdown, it is believed.
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