R Chandrasekhar set to be named DoT secy

R Chandrasekhar, a 1975 batch Andhra Cadre IAS, is set to be designated as the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) secretary and Telecom Commission chairman.

Currently, Chandrasekhar is the information technology (IT) secretary, and was recently given additional charge as DoT secretary till a new appointment was made.

PJ Thomas, who was the DoT secretary till earlier this month, has been appointed the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC).

The IT secretary’s slot, which will fall vacant once Chandrasekhar moves to DoT fulltime, is expected to go to Shashi Kant Sharma, a Bihar cadre 1976 batch IAS officer. At present, Sharma is director general (acquisition) in the defence ministry.

Communications minister A Raja, whose portfolio covers three departments — telecom, post and IT — has already been working with Chandrasekhar for around two years now, and therefore a continuity of sorts will be maintained through his appointment as DoT secretary, a source said.

Chandrasekhar, known for his e-governance and public-private partnership initiatives in the IT space, is a double Masters in Chemistry from IIT Mumbai and Computer Science from Pennsylvania State University. He set up the first Department of Information Technology in the country for his home cadre Andhra Pradesh.

The appointment of P J Thomas, a 1973 batch Kerala cadre IAS, as the CVC, has stirred controversy with the Opposition slamming the move. The BJP has alleged that appointment of Thomas as the CVC was aimed at covering up the alleged 2G telecom spectrum scam.

Recently, the Supreme Court sent notices to several parties over the estimated loss of Rs70,000 crore to the Exchequer due to the first-come-first-serve 2G spectrum allocation to companies in 2008.

The UPA regime has defended its decision to appoint Thomas as the top boss at CVC as he was not in the DoT at the time of the controversial allocation of 2G spectrum in 2007-08.