New Delhi: All decisions on spectrum allocation since 2003 by successive governments, including the UPA, were procedurally

wrong, concluded the one-man committee, which probed into the procedural lapses following the telecom scam. Unveiling the report of the Shivraj V. Patil committee, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said in New Delhi on Friday that the findings on procedural lapses are being sent to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into criminal culpability in the scam. Addressing a press conference a day after the arrest of former telecom minister A. Raja, Mr. Sibal said his predecessor had said that he was "not deviating from the previous policies (the NEDA government) but the problem was that the previous policies were wrong." Quoting the report, Mr. Sibal said the committee found that original spectrum allocation was "bad" and procedures were not followed both during the NADA government till 2004 and the UPA government up to 2008. It also said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) did not follow the advice of the Law Ministry or the views of the Finance Ministry over pricing of spectrum. The committee has also recommended reforms in allocation of spectrum and penalty on hoarding of the scarce natural resource. Deviation in policies on award of spectrum for second generation (2G) phone services started in 2003 during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government, Communications Minister Kapil Sibal said here Friday. "All decisions on allocation of 2G spectrum starting from 2003 were incorrect," Sibal said, sharing the report of the single-man panel under former Supreme Court Judge Shivraj V. Patil that examined the airwaves policy between 2001 and 2009. The minister also said the improper policy of first-come-first-served basis to allocate the scarce spectrum was also started during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. "Those who are making allegations today are the ones who actually began it. Why wasn't there an inquiry then? Ministers who did not follow cabinet decision were not questioned," Sibal said. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had suggested in 2003 that additional telecom players could be introduced through multi-stage bidding process and the cabinet accepted it in 2003. But the NDA did not follow the same. He wondered as to why this was being overlooked by opposition parties now while blaming the United Progressive Alliance government under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, which took charge in May 2004, for the so-called spectrum scam.

Sibal's comments summarizing the Patil committee report comes in the backdrop of the arrest two days ago of DMK's A. Raja, who was overseeing the communications ministry till Nov 7 when he was forced to resign in the wake of an audit report. The official audit institution, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, had said Raja's policies on spectrum allocation had resulted in the loss of between $12.8 billion and $40 billion to the exchequer. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had arrested Raja and two of his aides Wednesday on two counts -- misuse of office in allocation of spectrum, a finite national resource, and amassing wealth much higher than the known and legal sources of their income. The two aides were former telecom secretary Siddartha Behura and Raja's personal secretary R.K. Chandolia. Raja, once a powerful minister, was alleged to have misused his office and given away spectrum at below market rates.