 "Cabinet secretariat pulls up DoT")
Concerned about complaints made by ministers who are members of the empowered group of ministers on spectrum, the cabinet secretariat has pulled up the ministry of telecommunications(DoT) asking them to stop the practice of sending notes which are for its consideration just a few hours prior to the actual meeting.
In a terse note to the new secretary of DoT M F Farooqui , the cabinet secretariat has said that the current practice by DoT to send notes so late which leaves little time for the ministers to go through the issues is neither conducive to good decision making not in conformity with the existing guidelines on the subject.
It has now directed DoT that apart from putting in a mechanism to ensure that the notes for consideration are sent well in advance to the cabinet secretariat, it should also ensure that the officer of the minister of Finance may be contacted for scheduling the meetings only after the EGoM note have been delivered to them.
The EGoM on telecom has been dealing with crucial issues on telecom which includes fixing the base price for auction of CDMA spectrum as well as 1,800 Mhz for GSM operators. It has also been the key behind the re-auction of spectrum which failed to find buyers.
The empowered group will now be looking at fixing the date for re-auction of spectrum which was not sold in the 1,800 MHz band.
In a terse note to the new secretary of DoT M F Farooqui , the cabinet secretariat has said that the current practice by DoT to send notes so late which leaves little time for the ministers to go through the issues is neither conducive to good decision making not in conformity with the existing guidelines on the subject.
It has now directed DoT that apart from putting in a mechanism to ensure that the notes for consideration are sent well in advance to the cabinet secretariat, it should also ensure that the officer of the minister of Finance may be contacted for scheduling the meetings only after the EGoM note have been delivered to them.
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The cabinet secretariat has made it clear that in the last meeting of the EGoM headed by Finance minister P Chidambaram, some of the members strongly criticised this practice. Separately, a number of calls also have been received in the cabinet secretariat from the concerned ministers offices to ensure that they get the notes well in advance of the meetings of the EGoM.
The EGoM on telecom has been dealing with crucial issues on telecom which includes fixing the base price for auction of CDMA spectrum as well as 1,800 Mhz for GSM operators. It has also been the key behind the re-auction of spectrum which failed to find buyers.
The empowered group will now be looking at fixing the date for re-auction of spectrum which was not sold in the 1,800 MHz band.