ISRO-devas deal terminated

Decision taken at meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by PM. BJP says action is too little, too late

ISRO-devas deal terminated

Decision taken at meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security chaired by PM. BJP says action is too little, too late

On Thursday morning, the Centre's axe finally came down on the controversial deal between Antrix, the commercial arm of Indian space agency ISRO, and private firm Devas on the allocation of space spectrum using S-band, high value and scarce radio waves.

Firm hand: The decision comes a day after the PM told television editors
that he was "dead serious" on stamping out corruption.

"The agreement for the lease of space segment capacity on Antrix S-Band spacecraft (satellite) by Devas Multimedia Pvt. Ltd. shall be annulled forthwith," Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily told reporters, announcing the decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) here presided over by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apart from the PM and the Law Minister, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Defence Minister A K Antony and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also attended the meet.

The decision comes a day after the PM told television editors that he was "dead serious" on stamping out corruption in government. Devas Multimedia has threatened to take legal action as it Wednesday termed as 'disturbing and inappropriate' the government's 'unilateral' decision to terminate the agreement.

However, the government says it is ready for a legal battle if Devas approaches court. "The legal impact was also discussed in the CCS and it will move to the court since the deal is annulled. The government has taken all possible litigations under consideration before taking the decision (to scrap the deal). We are very confident that this is the matter which, even if they go to the court, they will not succeed and we will be in a position to face any legal challenges," Moily said.

The opposition and Public Accounts Committee chairman Murli Manohar Joshi described the decision as "too little, too late". Joshi, a former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the PAC may "look into the issue, if it feels the need".

Big Business
Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, had signed a contract with Devas Multimedia in January 2005 for lease of 90 per cent transponders in two satellites to be built by ISRO GSAT-6 and GSAT-6A. Bundled into the deal was 70 MHz of S-Band spectrum which was priced at Rs 1000 crore. According to estimates, the deal could have caused losses to the tune of over Rs 2 lakh crore to the national exchequer.