Unsolicited calls: Raja orders action

An unsolicited telemarketing call to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is what took Telecom Minister A Raja to swing into action for prohibiting such intruding calls immediately.

Within hours of reports that Mukherjee was at the receiving end of such calls, Raja activated his ministry to take steps against such calls that “encroach” into the privacy of telecom consumers. Raja has asked Telecom Secretary P J Thomas to convene a meeting for the same. “A wide range of products and services are offered through tele-marketing nowadays, which result in inconvenience and disturbance to telecom consumers,” Raja said in a note to the secretary.

During an interaction with Opposition leaders to resolve the logjam on price rise debate in Parliament, Mukherjee on Monday got a call with loan offers from some company, evoking a strong reaction from him. Those present at the meeting said Mukherjee asked his aides to hand him the mobile, thinking it must be an important call. However, he told the caller: “No, no. Not now. I am in a meeting.”Visibly angry, he handed over his mobile to Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayansamy.