PM appoints committee to deal on S-band spectrum

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday appointed a high power committee to review various aspects and fix responsibility for lapses in the controversial deal between Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, and a private company for lease of scarce S-band spectrum.Singh called in ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space K Radhakrishnan to brief the Cabinet on the agreement Antrix had signed with Devas Multimedia, a private company floated by former ISRO officials.

Radhakrishnan circulated a two-page note among the ministers on the agreement with Devas which the Space Commission had, in July last year, recommended be annulled.
The Prime Minister also informed the Cabinet that he had set up a two-member Committee of B K Chaturvedi and Roddam Narsimha to review various aspects of the controversial agreement which media reports claimed could cause a loss of Rs two lakh crore to the national exchequer.

A few ministers wanted to know the need for the deal with Devas and the purpose it would serve. At this point it was decided to wait till the High Power Committee submits its report.At the Cabinet briefing when asked about the Antrix deal, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said the issue was discussed after the meeting and a two-member committee has been asked to submit a report within a month.

When pointed out that Chaturvedi was Cabinet Secretary when the deal was signed, Soni said she was not in a position to comment but added that "he would know how and why it happened. An individual can assess the situation rising above a particular post, unless you are a beneficiary."

The Committee has been asked to review the technical, commercial, procedural and financial aspects of the agreement.The Committee would review the adequacy of procedures and approval processes followed by Antrix, ISRO and Department of Space, and suggest improvements and changes.

Media reports had stated that the Department of Space had allocated 70 MHz of S-Band spectrum to Devas Multimedia for Rs 1,000 crore. The actual value of this was estimated to be around Rs 2 lakh crore, the reports claimed.The Prime Minister's Office had denied reports, saying no decision has been taken and hence charges of revenue loss were without any basis.

ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan, at a press conference on Tuesday, had admitted that details about contract that gave Devas rights to 90 per cent usage of transponders on two satellites, were not shared with the Space Commission or the Union Cabinet.
ISRO issued an official note on the entire matter to clarify that the Government had taken no decision to allocate space segment using S-band spectrum to Antrix or Devas.
The note also included opinion of the Law Ministry that the deal with Devas be annulled.The Law Ministry opinion also made it clear that ISRO was not duty bound to provide orbit slot to Antrix for commercial activities, especially when there were strategic requirements to be met.

However, it said as per the agreement, Antrix will have to reimburse Devas all the upfront capacity reservation fees and corresponding service taxes it had received till the date of annulment.Devas has so far made a payment of Rs 58.37 crore as upfront reservation fee for two satellites -- GSAT 6 and GSAT 6A.As per the note, the Space Commission has recommended a review and restructuring of the working of Antrix in the wake of the controversial deal.Mewanwhile, Demanding immediate cancellation of Antrix-Devas deal for scarce S-band spectrum, BJP asked how a high-powered panel headed by former Cabinet Secretary B K Chaturvedi could probe the issue when he himself was among those who had approved it in 2005."The deal should be cancelled immediately. Various government departments had raised questions on the agreement. It had been seven months now that government was aware of the issue," BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters.In reply to a question, she said her party is not being unreasonable in demanding an immediate cancellation of the deal as the matter was before the government for the past seven months.