Birla wrote to PM: Former TRAI chairman

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Former Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman Nripendra Mishra told a CBI special court here on Friday that Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Jan 7, 2008 on the telecom licence issue.

Testifying as a prosecution witness in 2G spectrum allocation case, Mishra told a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special court: "Birla wrote a letter to the prime minister requesting that the application may be decided" within the stipulated period of 30 days. He also "marked a copy to me".

Mishra deposed that the letter was written in the context of unified access services license (UASL) guidelines of Dec 14, 2005, which said that an application for UASL was required to be decided within 30 days. Birla asked the prime minister to ensure that a decision on the licence applications was taken within this period.

Mishra said that he replied to Birla that the matter was in the domain of the department of telecommunications (DoT).

He added that as TRAI chairman, he apprised the prime minister's office regarding the recommendations Aug 28, 2007 and also gave a list of TRAI recommendations under consideration of DoT and the communications ministry.

Mishra said this while being cross-examined by jailed former communications minister A. Raja's ex-private secretary R.K. Chandolia.

He told Chandolia's counsel Vijay Aggarwal that he had nothing to do with the sanction of licence of any category.

Mishra told the CBI that he was secretary, DoT, from October 2005 to March 2006. He later became TRAI chairman and served it for three years till March 2009.

The CBI alleged that Raja allotted the second generation (2G) radiowaves in an arbitrary manner and caused a huge loss to the government exchequer.

According to the government auditor, the 2G scam, allegedly masterminded by Raja, pertained to a biased distribution of mobile airwaves and operating licences, in lieu of kickbacks, to telecom firms that could have cost the treasury up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore in lost revenue.