Will make reports public: ISRO chief

Dr K Radhakrishnan announced a move to make public two reports

Seeking to prove that the Department of Space did not act maliciously while barring four senior retired scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation,including former ISRO chairman Dr G Madhavan Nair,from future government duties,current ISRO chairman Dr K Radhakrishnan on Tuesday announced a move to make public two reports on the basis of which action was taken against the scientists.

Radhakrishnan,who also holds the post of Secretary,Department of Space,has so far maintained a stoic silence despite Nairs charge that the ban on them was a a result of the present ISRO chairmans personal agenda.

In an official statement on Tuesday,Radhakrishnan said the department is in the process of getting necessary clearances for releasing the reports of the two committees that examined various aspects of the January 2005 Antrix-Devas deal.

While one of the reports was by a High Powered Review Committee set up by the government on February 10,2011,the other was by a high-level team set up later the same year,on May 31,to fix responsibility for the lapses outlined in the first probe.

The first panel included former bureaucrat B K Chaturvedi and space scientist Prof Roddam Narasimha as members,while the second was headed by former central vigilance commissioner Pratyush Sinha.

On the basis of these reports,a Department of Space order dated January 13,2012,had barred Nair,former Antrix Corporation managing director K R Sridhara Murthi,former scientific secretary at ISRO A Bhaskaranarayana and former ISRO satellite centre chief K N Shankara.

Nair has written to the Prime Minister seeking that the ban order be put on hold until a proper inquiry was conducted,saying they were not given an opportunity to be heard. Nair has also sought the reports of the Chaturvedi committee and the Sinha committee under the Right to Information Act and said it would be good for the ISRO to put the reports in the public domain.

Hopeful PM will revoke order

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Former ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair expressed confidence that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would revoke the order against him and three other scientists,who have been barred from holding any government posts . Nair said he told the Prime Minister in a letter that the order amounts to tarnishing the image of the reputed scientists. He said the normal procedure is to give individuals an opportunity to explain if any panel comes out with any findings against them.If the explanation is not satisfactory,then only action is to be taken. It the order is a clear violation of procedures8221;,he had said in the letter to the PM. Nair said he was confident of a poisitve response. PTI