Rejecting the Justice Shivraj Patil report, former Telecom minister Arun Shourie on Saturday termed as ?absolute fabrication? the findings that blames him for approving telecom licesnes in 2003 at 2001 prices, disregarding guidelines.
While claiming to be the person who helped CBI get into the probe of the multi-crore 2G Spectrum scam, Shourie also rued his party, Bharatiya Janata Party?s (BJP), apparent disinterest in pursing the matter much earlier.
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?Maintaining that he was following the procedures as laid by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and approved by the Union Cabinet, Shourie, in an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN, said the incumbent Telecom minister, Kapil Sibal, was blaming Shourie to defend former Telecom minister A Raja.
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???That is an absolute fabrication. This fellow Patil, he is a hand-picked judge,? Shourie said, denying allegations levied on him of approving ?first come, first serve? policy against multi-bidding procedure.
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?Terming the report submitted by Justice Patil as a ?kind of nonsense?, Shourie said Patil has given a report to suit the conveniences of the government.
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?Defending his stand of going with the ?first come, first serve? policy, Shourie said, ??the ‘first come, first serve’?.. is a principle much older than me for the allotment of spectrum and there is a statutory obligation in the licence condition alone that first you will get 4.4.MHz of spectrum. When your subscriber base increases to such and such level, you will get the extra amount by paying the specified fee.?
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?The Justice Patil report, which went into the procedures followed by the Telecom ministry between 2001 to 2009, had held previous regimes responsible for faulty allocation of licences, overlook