Sibal on the defensive, says no favours granted to RCom

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today dismissed as “motivated and defamatory” media reports and a public interest litigation filed by Prashant Bhushan , which alleged that he bent the rules to favour Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Infocomm.

The Centre for Public Interest Litigation on Thursday filed a PIL in the Supreme Court which stated that Sibal reduced the penalty on RCom to Rs 5 crore from Rs 650 crore for violations of the UASL agreement. Firstpost has carried exclusive reports on these issues last week and earlier this week.

Reacting to the PIL, Sibal said that the PIL was malicious and motivated by vested interests.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi a day after the petition was filed, Sibal questioned the basis for computing the penalty as Rs 650 crore whereas the USO Fund itself had recommended a penalty of up to Rs 50 crore only. Giving details of the issue, he said RCom services were switched off for “whatever reasons” in November

2010 and on December 21, a show cause notice was issued to the company threatening imposition of “lumpsum” amount of Rs 50 crore as penalty for the same.

Stating that PILs cannot be used for settling personal scores, he said that he was grieved by the developments.

Sibal claimed that a penalty of Rs 5 crore was imposed on Reliance Communications for interruption of service as per agreement between Universal Service Obligation Fund and the company.

He said that the notice about the imposition Rs 50 crore was issued to Reliance Communications to pressurise the company to restore services. He maintained that the penalty was calculated on the basis of duration of disruption of services (7-45 days) as provided in the agreement between USO Fund and RCom.

Prashant Bhushan’s NGO alleged that a penalty of Rs 50 crore per circle should have been imposed for “violation of the terms and conditions of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) agreement and UASL agreement by voluntary, unilateral and unauthorized switching-off/closure of services to subscribers from USOF sites without any notice.”

“The Rs 5 crore penalty on the ADAG firm was as per the agreement between the USOF and Reliance Telecom. DoT was nothing to do with the penalty as the company had not violated the rules of license conditions,” Sibal said.

Agencies

Want to know more about how Sibal worked his magic in the RCom deal? Click here