The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is to regulate the telecommunications services and to protect the interest of the service providers and consumers and also to promote and ensure the growth of the telecom sector. The chairperson of Trai is one of the top most value and reputation holding position among top level bureaucrats in India. Moreover, the new chairperson will take charge at a time when Trai would be finalizing recommendations for the 2G auction following the Supreme Court’s verdict cancelling 122 telecom licences issued in 2008.
The present Trai chairman J S Sarma will retire on 14 May of this year. During the inquiry of the 2G scam, he has been giving evidence before the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and in a statement Mr Sarma blamed even the PM for the scam.
The government invited applications for filling up the chairman’s position. Actually, the bigwigs among the bureaucrats are in trouble. The government’s picked Siddharth Behura, the former telecom secretary when 2G scam happened; P J Thomas, the former CVC (Chief Vigilance Commissioner) whose appointment was labeled illegal and quashed by the Supreme Court of India and D S Mathur, the former telecom ministry senior official coming under the murky scam of 2G have done a huge damage to the reputation. Hence, this time the government had to advertise for filling up the post. The pay scale of the chairperson is Rs 3.75 lakh per month.
The Government formed search-cum-selection committee comprising Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth, Principal Secretary at Prime Minister’s Office Pullock Chatterjee, Secretary (Presonnel) P K Mishra, Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar and Advisor to the Prime Minister Sam Pitroda took the interview. The selection committee has interviewed around 10 candidates for the post on 2 April.
The interview is done with telecom industry veteran Rakesh Mehrotra; Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Commissioner Subodh Kumar and Fertiliser Secretary Ajay Bhattacharya. Former Secretary (Defence Finance) Indu Liberhan and Vijayalakshmi K Gupta who had held the position of Secretary (Defence Finance) were also present. Former DoT Member (Technology) Chandra Prakash was also a candidate. Commerce Secretary, Rahul Khullar; R P Singh and P K Basu also hit the selected candidates list.
It is rumoured that Subodh Kumar is the favourite of powerful telecom leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. The report on spectrum attributed to Subodh Kumar was actually authored by Bharti Airtel according to rival associations. While R P Singh was a Member of the Telecom Commission but he reputed as abrasive and unbending. Rahul Khullar and P K Basu have no Telecom background, hence, they are not favourite to the position.
The selected aspirants also includes ITS officers- Chandra Prakash, a retired member of DoT against whom CBI inquiry is pending in a Telephone Directory Printing case according to the sources. Ajay Bhattacharya, who was Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) administrator in DoT, who is well known with Giving Villagers a Voice format; is stated as the front runner this top post.
Rumours place Chandrashekhar, the present secretary of DoT as the strongest candidate for the chairman post. However, the industry doesn’t perceive him as a dynamic officer. He worked with Maran and Raja in IT department for more than 10 years and it the A Raja who brought him as the Secretary of DoT.
From the two ladies from the Defence Accounts – Ms Indu Liberhan was Advisor Finance in Trai during the tenure of Nripendra Mishra as the chairperson of it when Trai recommended that 2G Spectrum need not be auctioned; and 122 licences were issued by Raja quoting this part of the advice and recommendations. Recently, all the licences have been scrapped by the Supreme Court.
The other officer, Vijayalakshmi K Gupta was a Member of Finance DoT and conducted the 3G auction. She has an unblemished service record in the Commonwealth and the Telecom Ministry as well as in the coal auctions.
In such situation, rejections lead towards the selection finally.
By Abhishek Kumar
