You may have just heard about the 2G scam and the 1.76 lakh crore it cost the exchequer. Everyone from NDTV to the neighbourhood local TV channel has reported so many scams as breaking news over the past couple of months so much so that now we seem to be bored hearing about them.
Probably this is the reason a much bigger scam has been relegated to the back pages of the newspaper. Or maybe it could be the poor TRPs. Who knows?
What’s this spectrum scam all about?
The ISRO arm Antrix has awarded 70 MHz of the scarce S-spectrum for a period of 20 years to a company called Devas Multimedia without a proper auction. Another interesting part of the contract is that ISRO is required to build two satellites G-SAT6 and G-SAT6A where Devas would get to use 10 transponders. Devas Multimedia is headed by MG Chandrashekhar who has served as the General Secretary of ISRO at a period of time and has people like Mr Kiran Karnik on its Board of Directors.
So what’s the big deal?
The big deal is that the spectrum which is very scarce and rare was used by Doordarshan for streaming its programs across the country at one time is of very great importance today for high speed mobile communications.
The big deal is that the entire process seeks of favouring certain parties like Mr Chandrasekhar who was involved with ISRO as it removed the competitive bidding process from the entire issue altogether. The big deal is that this has cost the exchequer more than 2 lakh crore.
The big deal is that this has been caused by an agency which was established to develop India’s R & D capabilities and keep the country safe from external threats. The big deal is that Devas Multimedia has an Internet Service Provider Licence but has to acquire the licences for terrestrial spectrum before using it. Will it really acquire or again use some illegal means to do the same?
The BIGGEST deal of all is that ISRO was going to get a cool revenue share from Devas for their “generous” help over and above the US $ 290 million in initial payments.
So what can be done from this?
This just shows how far our systems have become corrupt be it the government or the private ones. We can all clamour for punishments for the top brass of ISRO and stuff like that. But only time will tell, what lies in store for the country.
Till then we can all clamour at the government about how our hard earned money is being misused. But is anyone listening?
Comments
BJP should take Stay Order in SC on this S Band Spectrum before it goes Commercial or the Investigation is over. After seeing LAND MAFIAS, ARM MAFIAS, BLACK MONEY MAFIAS, LAW MAFIAS, SPECTRUM MAFIAS etc..in Ministry. Is there any guarantee there would not be any NUKE MAFIA who would sell NUKES toTerrorists to make money under table? Call back all IB – RAW Officers from world wide and put behind Parliament to investigate them, what’s going on. Seems ANTI-NATIONALS are more in India than abroad.
Year after year big scam appear and disapear no one can do nothing