UPA adopted arbitrary ’First Come First Pay’ policy: Manoj Sinha

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha Thursday said that the Congress party was using trickery, and was responsible for the loss of revenue.

Sinha was reacting to the 2G scam verdict pronounced today in which all the accused were acquitted after a six-year long trial.

Congress party ek chakma de rahi, (Congress party is using a trickery) which I think is completely wrong, Sinha Thursday said.

“Government lost revenue and First Come First Serve policy was changed to First Come First Pay which was arbitrary and full of corruption,” the minister said.

In 2008, airwaves were sold at a price of 2001, he said.

Special CBI Court earlier today acquitted all 16 accused in the 2G spectrum scam including former telecom minister A Raja, former telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) lawmaker MK Kanimozhi.

In 2008, 2G spectrum was allocated and after CAG report, in February 2012, Supreme Court quashed licenses and said that procedure was wrongly followed.

Government will, however, take decision on 122 licences that were cancelled only after investigating agency, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) takes a stand in the matter.

Sinha, citing the 2012’s top court verdict, said that allocation was wrong and trial court’s order is upto the investigating agency to look into it.

The revenue received by the government after 2012 was higher if compared to auctions previously, the minister added.

In March 2015, Narendra Modi-led government received Rs 109,874 crore and in October 2016, 965 MHz spectrum was sold at Rs 65,789 crore.

According to Sinha, spectrum scarcity had become a thing of past after two auctions under the NDA regime, and added that the process was transparent with no complaint reported.

In 2017, Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) even applauded the telecom department for transparency, he added.

Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the court has pronounced unambiguously that all these massive propaganda that has been against the UPA was without any foundation.

India’s premier agency CBI in its 127-page chargesheet filed in 2011, alleged that 122 new second-generation 2G Unified Access Service (UAS) licenses were granted to private firms on a first-come, first-served basis at the 2001 price, in 2008.