Telecom cables trigger Centre-state turf war

NEW DELHI: Can a state’s exclusive land rights prevail over the Centre’s sole authority over telecom? Can a state give a telecom operator the exclusive right to lay overhead and underground optical fibre in a city, emphasising its land rights, in exclusion of other players to create a monopoly?

A Supreme Court bench of Justices R F Nariman, K M Joseph and S R Bhat on Monday termed these questions “very interesting” and issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh government as additional solicitor general Vikram Banerjee argued that the state and civic authorities were unconstitutionally attempting to create such monopolies in six smart cities.

The Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) had moved the Madhya Pradesh HC challenging the request for proposal (RFP) issued in July 2018 for “selection of concessionaire for implementation of intelligent street poles” in six smart cities — Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Sagar and Satna — under the public-private partnership design, build, own, operate and transfer model.