NEW DELHI, May 10: The Department of Telecommunications has stepped up activities regarding the formalities to be followed in blacklisting the scam tainted Advanced Radio Masts Ltd (ARM). The Department has scheduled hearings in the case to give the company a chance to reply to the allegations made against it in the show cause notice issued to ARM nearly six months ago.

The DoT has also sought the views of the Attorney General through the Union Law Ministry regarding the latest complications in awarding the Letter of Intent for the Rajasthan circle to the highest bidder, Telelink Services Ltd. Telelink is a consortium of four companies Advanced Radio Masts (ARM), Shyam Telecom, Harris of USA and Gyuondong, a Chinese company. The Rajasthan circle has been involved in controversies ever since the bidding process for the circle began.

The Department is caught in a Catch-22 situation where the government is not in favour of granting licence to a company which has links with the Sukh Ram scam as it could jeopardise the entire future of the privatisation in basic services in the state of Rajasthan. On the other hand, legal compulsions are making it difficult for them to drop one of the promoters from a consortium which has been declared as the highest bidder for the circle.

The DoT has been forced to seek legal opinion as ARM, wrote to the DoT earlier this month challenging its authority to discuss the matter of dropping of ARM from the consortium with individual promoters in the consortium. The ARM letter came close on the heels of newspaper reports stating the DoT's inclination to award the LoI to Telelink on the condition of dropping the scam-tainted company from the consortium.

ARM has stated that the DoT has so far not blacklisted the company. Even if this were so, the company director, K Raghavaia in his letter to the DoT states that under the tender conditions it has not been mentioned that a blacklisted company cannot be part of a consortium to bid for a circle. The letter states if the DoT has to frame such a rule it cannot be with retrospective effect.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.