Here is a classic case of policy paralysis.
Since 2010, the ministry of home affairs (MHA) isdesperately waiting for 2,199 mobile towers to be set up in Maoist-hit areasspread over 9 states. But the telecom ministry that has been tasked with thejob has not moved an inch so far. So pre-occupied it seems to be with the 2Gscam that even an SOS from home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has gone withoutresponse for two-and-half months.
Shinde’s communiqué, written on September 14 and addressedto telecom minister Kapil Sibal, is self-evident: “Please refer to mypredecessor’s letter of even number dated July 25, 2012 regarding erection ofmobile towers at 2,199 sites in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas.
“You would appreciate that, given security concerns, theerection of these towers (2,199 mobile towers) remains high priority area forthis ministry. I would once again like to stress that the erection of mobiletowers is one of the most important tasks in creating a dependable communicationsystem which is imperative while conducting operations in LWE affected areas.
“You would agree that considerable delay has been caused inresolving various issues related to this project. The work on the ground is yetto be started and any further delay in this direction would adversely affectanti-Naxal operations and also development interventions in LWE affectedareas.”
Shinde’s predecessor P Chidambaram was keen to end theisolation of the Maoist-hit areas and also to provide communication linkswithin. In consultations with telecom ministry, his ministry settled for 2,199sites where mobile towers would be set up. The department of telecommunications(DoT) was given the job, which roped in BSNL, the state-owned telecom serviceprovider. The sites were served and finalised. Funding issue was also sortedout with the DoT agreeing to utilise money lying with the Universal ServiceObligation Fund (USOF).
The problem started thereafter.
According to MHA officials, the ministry kept writing to DoTto get things done but nothing moved for months. Then, DoT woke up one day tosay that BSNL couldn’t be given the task since USOF rules called for “open”tendering.
But no tenders were issued for months.
Then DoT told the MHA that since these towers werecommercially non-viable, BSNL should be nominated for the task, for whichcabinet’s approval was necessary. Accordingly, a cabinet note was prepared inwhich BSNL quoted Rs 5,200 crore as the cost (i.e., about Rs 2.34 crore foreach mobile tower). The finance ministry objected to the non-scientific methodof calculating the cost and asked BSNL to make location specific calculations.BSNL hasn’t come back.
Meanwhile, Shinde wrote to Sibal. The letter is yet to beresponded to.
But orally, a DoT official told MHA in October that they haddecided to (a) set up a committee to examine how best to connect LWE areas and(b) provide bigger gateway for satellite phones in the interim to facilitatecommunication. These decisions are yet to be officially conveyed to MHA.
“A committee”, said an MHA official in exasperation, “meansdeath of the project. Besides, sat-phones are not needed. It isn’t so muchabout the security forces but the ordinary men and women in those areas whoneed connectivity.”
Absence of mobile towers means once one enters theMaoist-hit areas all links with the outside world is snapped, save for thosecarrying sat-phones. “It is a dark zone”, is how the official described it,stressing how important communication links were for security and development.
But Sibal and DoT don’t seem to bother.
