A Raja informed PM about change in FCFS policy: Behura

After A Raja, former Telecom secretary Siddhartha Behura today sought to implicate Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam, claiming that the PMO was kept in the loop by the then Telecom Minister on the first-come-first-served policy in the award of licenses.

Behura, seeking discharge from the case, said the letter, written by Raja to the Prime Minister on December 26, 2007, makes it clear that the shift in the first-come first-serve (FCFS) policy was also approved by Attorney General G E Vahanvati, the then Solicitor General.

"I am a civil servant and cannot be made an accused for following the policy which had the backing of the Minister and was approved by the Solicitor General and not only that even the Prime Minister was privy to it," senior advocate Aman Lekhi submitted before Special CBI Judge O P Saini.

Lekhi read the letter to drive home the point that the change in FCFS to decide priority of applicants companies was a policy decision and Behura had nothing to do with it.

Instead of according seniority on the basis of date of application, DoT decided to award licenses to companies which would comply with the terms of LoI first, Lekhi said.

"This issue never arose in the past as at one point of time only one application was processed and LoI was granted and enough time was given to him (company) for compliance of conditions of LOI."

"However, since the Government has adopted a policy of "No Cap" on number of UAS Licence, a large number of LoIs are proposed to be issued simultaneously. In these circumstances, an applicant who fulfills conditions of LoI first will be granted licence first, although several applicants will be issued LoIs simultaneously. The same has been concurred by the Solicitor General during discussions," Lekhi said while reading from the letter.