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THE NATION: TELECOM MINISTRY
The Paswan Morse Code
The vote bank is just an appointment call away for the
telecom minister as he overfills the rank and file of advisory committees
with his men
By Sharad Gupta
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THE JOBMAKER: The Telecom
Ministry has become Paswan's personal fiefdom |
As railway minister,
Ram Vilas Paswan used to gift his people free passes and trains; now as
telecommunications minister he has a simple way of transmitting his message:
give the unemployed jobs which require neither skill or hard labour but
are lucrative. In other words, make them advisers. The man, derided as
a "fiscal anarchist", has once again begun to convert a ministry
into a personal fiefdom.
The beneficiaries are mostly Paswan sycophants,
especially those in his home state Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh, where assembly
polls are due soon. In Bihar, besides doubling the strength of the telecom
advisory committees (TAC), he has nominated 1,901 members-against the
sanctioned 1,240-in various zones and districts. Barring two TACs in Bihar-Bhagalpur
and Kishanganj-the panels virtually spill over with his "own men".
TAC members are entitle to a free phone connection, don't pay rentals
and get 1,150 free calls per billing cycle.
BJP MPs are now demanding that Prime Minister
A.B. Vajpayee rein in the minister who is expanding his vote bank at the
cost of the public exchequer. They allege that besides giving their suggestions
a deaf ear, Paswan has been using the lure of his largesse to entice workers
from other political outfits towards his newly launched Lok Janshakti
Party (LJP). Take, for instance, Mahendra Singh, a Himachal Vikas Party
minister. After being sacked from P.K. Dhumal's cabinet, he was appointed
LJP state president and member of the Central TAC.
| PASWAN'S PERKS
A TAC member gets a connection and 1,150
free calls per billing cycle. This amounts to a loss to the government
of Rs 2,000 plus rentals and call charges per member.
With 19,000 TAC members, the costs add
up to Rs 25 cr per annum in free calls and about Rs 18 cr on rentals
and other fees.
WHAT TAC IS MEANT FOR
» Monitoring
the performance of telecom services and advising the Department
of Telecommuni-cations on further improvements.
» Bettering the relationship
between the users and the department.
» Giving the public the
necessary confidence that their grievances are being given a hearing.
» Publicising actions
beings taken by the department to improve telephone services.
» Assisting the department
in handling shortages in equipment and lines.
» Assisting the department
in deciding out of turn connections in a fair and unprejudiced manner.
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OVERMANNED
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Name of TAC
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sanctioned*
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existing
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Bihar (circle)
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65
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103
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Hajipur
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40
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131
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Muzaffarpur
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50
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106
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Patna (central)
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55
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95
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Patna (east)
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55
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97
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Siwan
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40
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90
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Samastipur
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40
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95
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Munger
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40
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88
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Darbhanga
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50
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87
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Motihari
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40
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80
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Paswan does not deny the charge that he is stuffing
the TACs with activists belonging to his Dalit Sena. "I have nominated
five-10 Sena members in every TAC because the deprived classes don't find
representation anywhere else," he says. But Maheshwar Singh, BJP
MP from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, questions whether being a Sena activist
is a prerequisite for a TAC nomination: "Why can't Dalits recommended
by MPs be included in the committee?" In Paswan's constituency, Hajipur,
131 TAC members have been nominations against the sanctioned 40. "He
has nominated 135 members in the 40-member TAC in my constituency, Chhapra,"
says Samata Party leader Prabhunath Singh, adding that most new members
are from Hajipur. J.N.P. Nishad, Janata Dal MP from Muzaffarpur, adds
that most of the 106 members in his constituency too are from Hajipur.
A PCO owner in Hajipur has been blessed with
a nomination to the TAC. Now he doesn't need to sit and count loose change;
his earnings have shot to Rs 2 lakh. In Uttar Pradesh, the Dalit Sena's
state chief and his three family members are in the TAC; that's three
phone connections in a two-room house. Predictably, a PCO was soon set
up. Recently, telecom authorities disconnected official phone lines of
190 TAC members in Hajipur for making extra calls worth Rs 27 lakh. But
such instances are rare. For Paswan, even a criminal antecedent doesn't
matter. In Patna, two TAC members-S.K. Sinha and Lallan Prasad Singh-thrashed
a subdivisional officer recently for a frivolous reason. They were sacked
but only after the telecom staff stopped work in protest.
According to the rules, the total membership
of TACs should be between 25 and 50, depending upon the size of the district
or circle. Only the minister is authorised to nominate members from a
"panel of names" submitted by heads of telecom districts or
circles, besides names received directly. But the practice has now been
done away with as ministers themselves nominate the entire TAC.
Some like Prabhunath Singh question the idea
of having a TAC as dot is now a corporation-the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited.
"TACs are meant only for unemployed politicians," he says. But
the minister justifies the panels as a feedback mechanism. "If they
are disbanded, who will listen to people in rural areas who have no access
to either officials or a minister?" At the same time, he admits to
inducting over 60 media persons in the 100-odd member Central TAC, which
has not met more than once during the past two years. "I have saved
on their TA and DA," Paswan claims, forgetting perhaps that it has
also meant 14 lakh free calls apart from cost of installation and maintenance
of connections, not to talk of default on payments in many cases.
Paswan refutes allegations made by BJP MPs by
saying he has accommodated 56 nominees of Ramesh Chandra Tomar, MP from
Ghaziabad, 55 nominees of Maheshwar Singh and 25 nominees each of Suresh
Chandel and Ashok Pradhan-all legislators who raised the issue at the
BJP Parliamentary Party meeting. "There must be some other reason
for their resentment," says the minister, adding that most of the
MPs are upset over his refusal to transfer their favoured officers in
the face of opposition from another section of the BJP leadership.
Janata Dal (U) leader Laxmi Sahu has also accused
Paswan of trying to buy off the trade unions by offering free phones to
over 3.2 lakh employees without consulting the Finance Ministry. Samata
Party Rajya Sabha member Lallan Kumar terms it a loot of public money
Paswan-style. In any case, they argue, under Section 11 (1)(i) of the
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, 1997, it is TRAI that
is authorised to "protect the interest of consumers of telecommunication
service". Therefore, any committee should be working under TRAI,
and not under the minister.
To top it all, a mysterious "madam"-described
by telecom officials as Mrs Paswan-is behind many TAC appointments. A
certain Ramesh Thakur and Narender K. Kaundal have, in fact, been recommended
by the minister, "C/o Madam", to the Mandi TAC in Himachal Pradesh.
"Interference of the minister's family in matters of governance should
be condemned. The prime minister should see to it that such things are
repeated neither in the Telecom Ministry nor in other ministries,"
says Prabhunath Singh.
While the NDA brass chooses to remain mum, Paswan
continues to communicate with his constituency in the cheapest way possible.
—With Farzand Ahmed and Subhash Mishra
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