By IANS,
New Delhi : There was no deviation in procedures while awarding radio frequency spectrum to telecom firms and all decisions were taken after due consultation on legal and other matters, Communications Minister A. Raja said Tuesday.
“All my predecessors followed the same procedure. So did I. In terms of legal rules and procedures, there has been no deviation,” Raja told reporters here on the sidelines of a conference on information and communications technologies with state ministers.
He said licences were issued and allotments of spectrum made solely on the basis of the recommendations by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the watchdog for the sector, and in consultation with the Prime Minister’s Office and top law officers.
“I wanted to bring competition in accordance with the TRAI norms. The competition may have created some storm,” he said, adding he managed to break the cartel and welcomes investigation into the matter. He declined to take any other step personally.
“Where is the question of resignation,” the minister retorted when asked to respond to the demands by opposition parties which alleged a multi-billion dollar scam in the spectrum issue and demanded Raja’s scalp.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday the allegations about the scam were incorrect, even as the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids on the offices of the communications ministry last week.
The premier investigative agency said the licences were awarded to companies on a first-come-first-served basis at the rates prevailing in 2001 and without any competitive bidding.