Phone panels abolished

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 25. The Communications Minister, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, today abolished the institution of telephone advisory committees (TACs) - a durable source of political patronage thus far.

Membership to the committees had become contentious after MPs belonging to the BJP complained to the Prime Minister about the previous incumbent, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan's alleged `penchant' for packing them with Dalit Sena activists and a newly-formed political party at the cost of the ruling party's supporters.

The country's 358 TACs had a total strength of 16,000 members. Specifically, Bihar, home State of Mr. Paswan, had 1,543 members against the sanctioned strength of 905 while Delhi had 824 members against 465 allowed while the Jharkhand telecom circle of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited bore the burden of providing free phones and travel allowance to 437 ``social workers'' as against the norm of 345.

Mr. Paswan also conceived of new institutions such as the National Telephone Service Committee (NTSC) whose Chairman was paid an honorarium of Rs. 6,000 a month besides three rooms for use in an upmarket location and six free tickets each by air and rail. Other NTSC members were provided two phones each with free STD facility besides an honorarium of Rs. 400 a month. Interestingly, the NTSC failed to meet its mandate of submitting a report on phone services as most of its members were activists of Mr. Paswan's political party.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Front Page
Previous : T.N. civic polls: decks cleared
Next     : Train derails after blasts