Buta, Purkayastha At Loggerheads Over Responsibilities

Differences in opinion between cabinet minister for communications Buta Singh and minister of state Kabindra Purkayastha are set to erupt following the issual of notification demarcating the functions of the two. The notification sidelines Purkayastha and vests most of the important functions and decision-making powers with Singh.

Sources said according to the notification, Purkayastha will deal with peripheral issues. All the purchase and policy decisions in the department of telecommunications (DoT) and department of posts have been retained with the cabinet minister. This means that Singh will have to give the final clearance to equipment purchase contracts worth some Rs 8,000-9,000 crore annually.

Purkayastha will look after issues like welfare, medical and sports activities of employees; affairs of SC/ST (scheduled caste/ scheduled tribe) employees; replies to unstarred questions raised in Parliament; allotment of public call offices, public telegraph offices and post offices and living quarters to employees; handling consultative committees; and amendments to laws governing the department.

He (Purkayastha) has not even been allowed to prepare the starred questions in Parliament, a government source said. Starred questions are considered more important than unstarred ones, since the former can be debated on the floor of the house while replies to the latter are tabled in Parliament.

Purkayastha was away to his home-state Assam and could not be contacted. Singh too was not available for comment.

The functioning of DoT had been thrown into a disarray after differences between Singh and Purkayastha came to the fore.

Singh was reported to have asked Purkayastha to restrict himself to affairs relating to the department of posts (revenues of about Rs 350 crore compared to some Rs 14,000 crore of DoT). The latter refused.

Top DoT sources said the Telecom Commission (the nine-member apex body of the department) was not putting up any important files to either of the ministers.

The reluctance of the commission officials emanates from uncertainty over the responsibility areas of the ministers.

One source said, its early days yet, but all through the last two weeks the commission has been sending the two ministers files containing routine information like the status of the network, expansion strategy etc. Nothing of importance has gone to them.

Important issues like the departments stance on dealing with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or the satellite telephony policy have not been put up before the ministers. Neither have important policy decisions like the extension of the licence period for cellular projects from 10 to 15 years been brought to the notice of the duo.