Rajeev Chandrasekhar, a member of India’s Parliament, has raised several issues for improving the transparency of the country’s Department of Telecom, an agency of the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology.
A review of the multistakeholder consultation procedure should be undertaken to achieve broad consensus on policy issues, Chandrasekhar said. “Transparency in issuance of Show Cause Notices regarding rollout obligations, clear-cut guidelines on Spectrum allocation to the operators, and simplified rules for merger and acquisitions in the telecom sector” are also among the issues he said he would like to see addressed.
Chandrasekhar has also said the ministry has to ensure that only genuine company representatives have access to the Sanchar Bhavan and that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India should be given more authority to establish a stronger regulatory environment.
In response to Chandrasekhar’s points, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said that broad consensus has been achieved on different policy issues among stakeholders. Sibal also said that the time is not right to place show-cause notices for rollout obligations in the public domain, as the matter is still pending.
The minister further said that the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on issues related to spectrum allocation and M&As are still under examination and that the DoT is working towards strengthening the telecom regulator.
