Rajas babus face heat now

A Raja was made to resign as Telecom Minister under intense political and institutional pressure.

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A Raja was made to resign as Telecom Minister under intense political and institutional pressure,and now his key aides in the bureaucracy,R K Chandolia and A K Srivastava,are under the investigative gaze.

Chandolia,who was Rajas private secretary in UPA-I when the 2G licences were granted,is now economic advisor in the Department of Telecommunications. Srivastava is deputy director-general access services-I,handling licensing matters.

Interestingly,Siddhartha Behura and P J Thomas,former secretaries in the DoT,and incumbent R Chandrasekhar,have let these officials retain their portfolios.

Chandolia,an Indian Economic Service officer,was promoted to joint secretary rank after Raja retained his telecom ministry portfolio in UPA-II. He enjoyed immense de facto powers and helped the minister in his blatant and arbitrary disbursal of 2G spectrum licences in January 2008, said a former DoT secretary,who did not wish to be named.

Raja brought Chandolia back to DoT as economic adviser. This slot was a new creation,with DoT already having a senior economic adviser. Chandolia assumed his new role mid-September last year. With the retirement of the then telecom secretary Behura,he gained in power.

Behuras successor P J Thomas now Central Vigilance Commissioner allocated him several important tasks in policy-related matters and appointment of directors in boards of PSUs like BSNL,MTNL and ITI. Sources said this was done at Rajas behest. Allocation of work to officials is the prerogative of the secretary,but the minister can verbally cite his preferences. So,despite the CBI raids in DoT in connection with the 2G scam last October,Thomas,instead of shifting out officials who were involved in the allotment of controversial licences,allocated them more important jobs. In the case of Chandolia,major policy-related work was taken away from the then Joint Secretary telecom J S Deepak and allocated to Chandolia.

The new telecom minister Kapil Sibal may take a call on these officials and their current assignments,sources said.

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Meanwhile,Chandolia still continues to hold the post and reports directly to the Secretary. Of late,hes said to have been active in selecting the new chairman and managing director of BSNL.

The other key official who directly handled licences and is signatory to every file and has also been interrogated by the CBI is A K Srivastava. The official not only continues to handle the same charge but also prepares notes on behalf of DoTs defence,which is then circulated to other ministries.

The DoTs reply to the Comptroller and Auditor General of India CAG that it had no business to audit government policies was drafted by him and processed by DoTs legal advisor,Santokh Singh,another officer who advised Raja on licensing.