Vardhan has demanded a judicial inquiry into the case and recovery of public money from Reliance group.
‘It’s a clear case of corruption. A senior cabinet minister misused his powers to favour Reliance group and damaged the exchequer to the tune of Rs 650 crore,’ alleged Harsh Vardhan, adding the country in general and voters of Chandni Chowk in particular have every right to know the wrong doings of their representative. Vardhan also provided several government documents to prove his claim including Sibal’s letter overruling the advice of senior government officers to favour Reliance Communication. The Department of Telecommunications of the central government had issued show cause notice to Reliance Communications on 21 December 2010 asking why the latter snapped communication services in North East Delhi without informing the government. The notice also asked the Reliance group to explain why the mandatory penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle should not be imposed on it. The company was allocated 13 circles in North East area for providing communication services for which it was also given subsidy for it’s initial losses for expantion to rural areas.
In its official report on 9 February 2011, the Department of Telecom recommended imposition of penalty on Reliance for voluntarily, unauthorised and unilateral switching off of services to subscribers but the then minister of Telecom Sibal overruled the order on 18 February, thus providing Rs 650 crore direct benefit to Reliance, alleged Vardhan. Demanding judicial inquiry,
Vardhan said only that would reveal the money made by Sibal and a case must be registered under Prevention of Corruption Act. Vardhan also questioned the silence of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on the issue and alleged AAP also benefited the Ambani group by paying over Rs 372 crore for power during his 49 day-tenure as Delhi chief minister. Vardhan dubbed Sibal a non-performer as over Rs 18,000 crore allocated for infrastructure development were unused during his tenure and blamed him for lack of infrastructure development for telecommunications in remote areas of the country.
‘It’s a clear case of corruption. A senior cabinet minister misused his powers to favour Reliance group and damaged the exchequer to the tune of Rs 650 crore,’ alleged Harsh Vardhan, adding the country in general and voters of Chandni Chowk in particular have every right to know the wrong doings of their representative. Vardhan also provided several government documents to prove his claim including Sibal’s letter overruling the advice of senior government officers to favour Reliance Communication. The Department of Telecommunications of the central government had issued show cause notice to Reliance Communications on 21 December 2010 asking why the latter snapped communication services in North East Delhi without informing the government. The notice also asked the Reliance group to explain why the mandatory penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle should not be imposed on it. The company was allocated 13 circles in North East area for providing communication services for which it was also given subsidy for it’s initial losses for expantion to rural areas.
In its official report on 9 February 2011, the Department of Telecom recommended imposition of penalty on Reliance for voluntarily, unauthorised and unilateral switching off of services to subscribers but the then minister of Telecom Sibal overruled the order on 18 February, thus providing Rs 650 crore direct benefit to Reliance, alleged Vardhan. Demanding judicial inquiry,
Vardhan said only that would reveal the money made by Sibal and a case must be registered under Prevention of Corruption Act. Vardhan also questioned the silence of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on the issue and alleged AAP also benefited the Ambani group by paying over Rs 372 crore for power during his 49 day-tenure as Delhi chief minister. Vardhan dubbed Sibal a non-performer as over Rs 18,000 crore allocated for infrastructure development were unused during his tenure and blamed him for lack of infrastructure development for telecommunications in remote areas of the country.