Govt accepts 69 recommendations of Ashok Chawla committee

The decision to accept the recommendations was taken at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and attended by several ministers including Pranab Mukherjee, Jayanthi Natrajan and S Jaipal Reddy.

In its report, submitted to the government in May 2011, the Committee on Allocation of Natural Resources had recommended, among other things, that all future telecom licenses should be "unified licenses" and spectrum de-linked from the license.

In the case of government land, it suggested competitive and transparent e-auctions to curtail the discretionary powers of decision makers.

It had given 81 recommendations of which 69 were accepted by Group of Ministers on corruption headed by the Finance Minister.

"At the end of the meeting it was decided that all the 69 agreed recommendations would be pursued for implementation by individual Ministries in a timely manner. Detailed timelines will be finalised," the Prime Minister's Office said.

The Department of Economic Affairs made a presentation on the recommendations in the meeting.

The Committee, under former Finance Secretary, was constitued in January 2011 to examine the approach for allocating natural resources.

The purpose was to obtain recommendations that would enhance transparency, effectiveness and sustainability in the allocation, pricing and utilisation of natural resources through open, transparent and competitive mechanisms.

The recommendations have been accepted in the backdrop of government facing flak on large-scale corruption in allocation of natural resources, like telecom spectrum.