BJP demands removal of telecom minister

Accusing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of indulging in corruption during “its last days in office”, the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today demanded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Union Communications Minister A Raja for allegedly helping his friend get franchise of state-run BSNL’s new high-speed internet service.

“The UPA government has perhaps decided to loot the nation in its last days in office. Reports suggest that the communications minister has helped five companies of his friend Sanjay Kapoor get franchise of BSNL’s Wi Max (high-speed internet) service,” alleged BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar.

“We demand the prime minister to sack Raja immediately,” he told reporters here. The BJP spokesperson claimed that out of the six companies short-listed for franchise, five belonged to Kapoor.

“The companies were registered on a single date (November 7, 2008) with same notary, same auditor, same witnesses, same address and same email id,” he added.

He said if the process of allotment goes ahead, “it will mean giving 20 MHz of spectrum without any investment and offering free use of BSNL’s assets including its 20,000 offices, 50,000 towers and two million km of optical fibre cable...This is corruption to the tune of thousands and crores of rupees.”

The BJP also dema-nded stopping the allotment process.