2G scam and the role of Ministers .. (900 th post.. on blog)

The CAG report on the 2G scam is the biggest the country has seen in post independence history. Read on ..

http://www.hindu.com/2010/11/17/stories/2010111762000100.htm

Is it an error due to technical ignorance of the details by the Minister or his over eagerness to improve the teledensity in the country that led to this state of affairs, is yet to be proved. Would we have been able to get almost three times the no of telephone connections, landline and wireless, as in US or almost ten times as of UK or France or three times as much as Europe if we were very cautious in our moves ?

The PM has able hands at his disposal, Kapil Sibal is not a wrong choice. He is a legal expert, but could be failing in technical issues. The synchronised frequencies of the Maharashtra CM Prithviraj Chawan, BITS Pilani, Stanford aeronautical engineer and Jairam Ramesh, Union Environment Minister. IITB, CMU, MIT graduate has alredy seen the new airport for Mumbai getting the needed sanctions.

It is now clear that if there was some arrangement between the telecom operators and DOT, it must not have happened without collusion of the officials and minister who have arbitrarily advanced the cut-off dates for applications and gave licenses to ineligible applicants, almost 70%. These fly by night operators have sold off their stake to others or dumped these at high margins to other players.

The govt should now besides, criminally proceeding against the responsible minister and officials, look at measures to minimise the losses to the exchequer. Given that almost Rs 38,000 crores of spectrum is yet to be utilised, the govt should immediately withhold all the spectrum allocation and do a re-auction of the same.

The PM should look beyond the Coalition Dharma (unlike former PMs during the disinvestment and telecom scams earlier) and come clear with a white paper on the issue . His silence in this issue is getting deafening day by day and he needs to get the issue clear for the benefit of the people of the country. Give that more and more value added services are being planned linking the mobile phone and credit cards for financial payment, the revenue from 2G spectrum is only going to increase in the coming years.

The PM and ministers should not forget the fact that they are only the caretakers of the resources of the country and its people for the duration which they are elected to do so. They should not under any circumstance even remotely think they can take the people and media of the country for a ride.

Can the political class be given unfettered access to manage the resources of our country and its citizens ? When it comes to squandering the resourcesof the country by its leaders and bureaucrats, this is a clear warning from the people of the country that they can be unforgiving and uncompromising

ge.. ( This is the 900 th post on my blog..)