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Journalism of Courage
The practice of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO chairman holding three other top slots in different organisations the Space Commission,Department of Space and Antrix was questioned at a meeting of the Estimates Committee of Parliament on Wednesday.
The committee,led by senior Congress member in Lok Sabha Francisco Sardinha,is looking into the allocation of S-band spectrum by ISRO,with special reference to the Antrix-Devas deal.
Members of the committee raised the point after senior officers of the Department of Space made presentations. The committee had decided to examine the deal last month.
The government had scrapped the controversial agreement between Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia for the lease of space segment in S-band in February after widespread criticism of the manner in which the deal was struck.
The arrangement between the two sides envisaged that Antrix would provide 70 MHz of the scarce S-Band space segment to Devas for its digital multimedia services. This was to be done by leasing 90 per cent of the transponders in satellites GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A that are proposed to be launched by ISRO.
Devas,in turn,was to pay Antrix a total of 300 million over 12 years. The agreement was signed way back on January 28,2005.
Consequently,the Department of Space had obtained Cabinet approval for the building of GSAT-6 at a cost of Rs 269 crore and GSAT-6A at a cost of Rs147 crore under the commissions delegated powers.
