Opposition guns for Raja in Telecom scam

Congress says it wont seek action against minister

 
However, Raja ruled out resignation even as the Opposition sought fixing of “political accountability” for the alleged scam.

The CBI carried out search operations and raids in the country to figure out the form and content of the alleged economic fraud and to gather further leads into the alleged irregularities. Significantly, the Congress on Friday indicated that it would not seek any action against the minister. “Since the FIR names only officials, the question of propriety does not arise. The CBI has registered a case against some officials, and the whole matter is still under investigation,” said party spokesman Manish Tiwari.

As against this, the BJP demanded that Raja be sacked in the context of the search operations by the CBI to probe the spectrum allotment. Conversely, the CPM asked Prime Minister  Mamohan Singh to “ensure accountability”.

“We demand that the prime minister sack Raja,” BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters, maintaining that anomalies in spectrum allocation had figured in parliamentary debates as well as the media in the past few months.

The CBI registered a case on October 21 against the officials of the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) and unknown private persons/companies and others under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act. CBI said there had been serious irregularities in the award of Unified Excess Services Licenses (UESL) to private companies, and that there was a criminal conspiracy between certain officials of the DOT and private persons/ companies and others in order to award licenses to such companies by putting a cap on the number of applicants against recommendations of the TRAI.

As against the TRAI recommendations, the DoT allegedly  awarded licenses to private companies on first-come-first-served basis on the rates of 2001 without any competitive bidding. Raja has denied allegations of irregularities in spectrum allocation, saying all decisions were taken after consultations with all in the government.