The opposition in India has been demanding the resignation of Raja for several months, but things came to a head after a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) was leaked to local media.
The report states that the minister could have caused big losses to the exchequer of the country by allocating spectrum licenses at low prices including nine operators, according to reports in the media.
Raja, who belongs to the DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party, a coalition partner in the federal government, resigned on Sunday night. He told reporters that he had not broken any laws, and to prove it. He had resigned to avoid embarrassment to the federal government, he said.
India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said last year that has registered cases against some officials of the country's Department of Telecommunications (DOT), private sector companies and some individuals in connection with alleged irregularities related with the licensing of telecommunications by the DOT.
The CBI did not name the individuals or companies who have been charged under the country's Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Department of Transportation decided that licenses are allocated on a first-come, first served "at a low rate current form in 2001, against the advice of the local telecoms regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) CBI said.
The Transportation Department's decision to put a limit on the number of licenses per service area, and the decision to stop accepting new applications even before the last date fixed has also been criticized.
The CBI said that putting a limit on the number of licenses has been a criminal conspiracy among some DOT officials and some private companies and individuals for granting certificates to select companies.
The CBI was harshly criticized by the Supreme Court of India last month for the delay in conducting investigations.
Several of the licensees, said it has benefited from the alleged irregular awarding spectrum licenses and later went on to sell their shares in service industries to foreign investors as Telenor, at prices well above the amount paid by owners license for the spectrum, according to opposition parties in India.
In the case of 3G licenses, the government auctioned the licenses and spectrum. Tata Teleservices has already started the deployment of services, Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile service provider, which is expected to start rolling before the end of the year
No comments:
Post a Comment