JOINT ACTION COMMITTEE OF ASSOCIATIONS / UNIONS

OF BSNL EXECUTIVES & NON-EXECUTIVES

D-7, Telegraph   Place, Gole Market, New Delhi – 110 001

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2G – Historical Verdict of Supreme Court

 The Joint Action Committee of BSNL Associations and Unions of Executives and Non-Executives heartily welcomes the verdict of Supreme Court cancelling 122 2G Licences of 11 telecom companies which secured licences through illegal and irregular methods in 2008. The judgement has exposed the biggest corruption estimated at 1.76 Lakh crore by CAG.

The JAC has been continuously demanding the cancellation of these illegal licences, impose penalty on them and also book the corrupt politicians and government officers involved.

The telecom sector, after privatisation, has been witness to all kinds of corruptive practices, tax-evasion by showing less revenue, conversion of ISD/STDcalls in to local calls for avoiding taxes, and so on. The DOT as well as TRAI/TDSAT have been taking a soft stand on all these illegal activities and bailing out them, instead of taking strong measures to curb the corruptive practices.

In addition, the telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL has been the victims of these irregularities, since the private companies benefited while BSNL / MTNL have acted as per all rules and regulations paying taxes etc.

In order to implement the so-called ‘reforms’ and neo-liberal policies, the government has been acting on a pro-private and anti PSU line, which has been clearly exposed now.

The JAC demands the government to have a fresh look on all the earlier irregular transactions in the telecom sector and introduce transparent and pro-people line, instead of granting undue favour to theMNCs and corporates in the telecom sector.

The connections provided by some of the companies whose licences have been cancelled are given below:

1. Uninor (Telenor)                       363.06 lakh

2. Siestama Shyam                        150.06 lakh

3. Videocon                                      54.42  lakh

4. S.Tel                                              35.49 lakh

5. Loop                                              32.36 lakh

6. Etisalat                                         16.70 lakh

Some licences of Tata and Idea are cancelled. But they had earlier licences also. Hence how much their connections will be affected can not be easily mentioned. Idea has got 1063.81 lakh  and Tata 834.92 lakh connections.  It can be said that about 5 crore to 10 crore connections may be effected. It is a crucial time for BSNL to increase its connections.

V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener, JAC

The Supreme Court will tomorrow pronounce its judgements on the petitions seeking a direction for a probe into the alleged role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in 2G spectrum scam and for cancellation of 122 radiowave licences granted during the tenure of A Raja as Telecom Minister. The judgements will be pronounced by a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly on the plea for probe against Chidambaram and for cancellation of licences of spectrum on October 10 and March 17 respectively last year. The unanimous verdicts on both the petitions would be pronounced by Justice Singhvi. Since Justice Ganguly is retiring tomorrow, he will be sitting in a bench headed by Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia. The petitions on both the issues were filed by NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy. (Courtsey: Ganashakti)