The UPA government is once again on the wrong move. If the reports in the press are correct, the Govenment is trying to let off the private telecom companies, which has violated the rules of the country and cheated the exchecquer to go scotfree, by imposing a small pentalty of some few crores.

Violations of rules and regulations have been the regular feature in the telcom sector, especially by the private telecom operators. They make profit of thousands of crores of rupees through manipulation of rules, getting ineligible benefits, cheating the government and so on. When these issues are brought to the notice of the DOT or the Governement, after dilly-dallying for a long time and giving chance for the offenders to cover up their misdeeds, a small penalty is imposed to mislead the public.

This happened earlier in the case of Reliance and other companies. Now the DOT is proposing another such escape route for the private companies. The Times of India dated 3rd March has reported that instead of imposing a penalty to the tune of Rs. three thousand crore for multiple penalties to the various companies which violated the rules, only Rs.28.5 crore penalty is being proposed by the DOT. If this is correct, the Government is once again salvaging the private telcos which has to be opposed and exposed.

Had not the government learnt any lessons from the 2G scam and related matters?