If the Bofors scam, which triggered a collapse of Rajiv Gandhi's government, was worth Rs 64 crore, what would you call the Telecom scam?
Comptroller and Auditor General of India has indicted Telecom Minister A Raja confirming the allegation that he caused a revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore during 2G spectrum allocation.Highlights of the 77-page report:
- Raja ignored Prime Minister’s advice on the issue
- Issued 2G spectrum licences arbitrarily, at throaway prices
- “flouting every canon of financial propriety, rules and procedures”
- 85 out of the 122 licences were granted to “ineligible applicants” as these companies did not have the stipulated paid-up capital when they applied.
- 45 of these 85 licencees were given to companies which failed to conditions of the main clauses in the Memorandum of Association, the report said.
- Dual technology licences were given to without giving equal opportunity to other operators, the report said. Undue benefit were given to Swan Telecom, Shyam Telelink, HFCL.
J Gopikrishnan, a young reporter from The Pioneer, broke the story and followed the story relentlessly leading up to Raja’s resignation. This is his story
Read the full text of http://www.cag.gov.in/
