As tenure of three top officials is set to end by April. |
The tenure of three top officials of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will get over by April. The government will begin to scout for replacements from next week. |
However, the new appointments are slated to be announced "immediately" so that the functioning of the regulator is not hampered. |
Trai Chairman Pradip Baijal will be the first to quit as his tenure ends in March 21, and then it will be the turn of Trai members D P S Seth and P K Sarma, whose stints end a month later. |
The government will soon begin looking for their replacements, Trai sources said today. |
Baijal, Seth and Sarma, who are top three personnel of the telecom regulator, are its only full-time members. |
The retirement age of Trai officials is 65 or completion of three years with the regulator, whichever is earlier. All the three officials, who are below 65 years of age, are completing their three-year stints with the regulator. |
Union communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran, who was in Mumbai last week for the Intel Centrino launch and on Tuesday for the 'Digitial Summit-2006', chose to remain tightlipped on the Trai replacements issue. |
Retired as divestment secretary, Baijal joined Trai on February 28, 2003. He, known for introducing the unified licence regime, is also admired for his tough stance whenever the telecom regulator required that kind of approach from him, especially when it was at loggerheads with associations of cellular operators. |
Seth joined Trai after retiring as chairman and managing director of BSNL, with which he had a long 35-year stint. Seth is believed to be the man behind-the-scene of unified licence. |
Sarma, who joined Trai as the third full-time member on April 10, 2003, had formerly been with Central Board of Direct Taxes as its chairman. |