I won't step down: Raja

Union Minister of Telecom and IT Thiru A Raja has said that he will not resign due to the allegations of causing revenue loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.
Speaking at the sidelines of an event here, the minister said, "I will prove that whatever has been done is according to the Telecom Policy of 1999. Even in 2001, the CAG had used harsh words for telecom ministry. There is no question of stepping down."
Raja is accused of irregularities in the 2G spectrum auction held in 2008. He had by-passed an auction procedure and instead gave licences to companies who did not fulfill the eligibility criteria and resold their licenses at massive gain. The case is being examined by the Supreme Court.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has earlier told the Department of Telecom that if it terminates unified access service licence (UASL) of five applicants who did not meet the eligibility criteria at the time of application, it can fortify Rs 2,625 crore.
RP Singh, director general of audit (post and telecommunications) at CAG stated in his earlier letter to DoT, "Termination of licence of five applicants by DoT would result in encashment of Rs 2,625 crore on accounts of financial bank guarantee of Rs 1,875 crore; and performance bank guarantee of Rs 750 crore."
Telecom Yatra had reviewed the letter of RP Singh and learnt that Unitech Group, Allianz Infrastructure, Loop Telecom, Datacom Solutions and S Tel were granted licences; although they didn't meet the eligibility conditions prescribed by DoT at the time of application.
The letter had further stated that the memorandum of association (MoA) and article of association of some of the applicants had suppressed the facts and had given misleading information while applying.
In Loop and Allianz's case, CAG's letter states that the MoA of the two companies did not include telecom business and that they also enhanced the authorised capital after submitting their applications.
Datacom and S Tel on other hand were granted 21 and six circles respectively, although they did not have the requisite authorised capital while submitting the application. This capital was enhanced later on.
Unitech group of companies, which was awarded UASL licence in 22 circles, had changed the object clause of the MOA from real estate to telecom sector.
CAG said that the application should have been rejected in the first place, and that the DoT failed to verify the facts submitted by the applicants in detail.
The letter had also revealed that "as per the DoT's own stipulations, none of these companies were eligible for grant of UAS licences on the date they submitted their applications in the DoT. Since the applications did not meet the eligibility criteria on the cut-off date fixed for processing applications, their applications should have been rejected and the companies should have been asked to apply fresh for UASL."
It further stated, "Since there were 343 other applications waiting to be processed, eligible applications from the waiting list based on the first-come-first-serve principle should have been considered for issue of license. But the DoT chose not to abide by its own guidelines and issued 122 licenses without detailed verification of the documents submitted by the applicants."
On Wednesday, the government defended Raja, arguing that he followed the same policies as that of his predecessors, and that by keeping 2G rates low, he allowed for greater teledensity and cheaper prices for consumers.
The Telecom Ministry had on Thursday filed an affidavit in the Court, out rightly dismissing all CAG findings.