NEW DELHI, June 2: Conflicting opinions on the nature of restructuring within the Telecom Commission have emerged which are likely to delay the restructuring process of the department. While the telecom commission discussed the restructuring options in its meeting held last week, there is still no consensus on the speed at which the DoT should be corporatised. The two views refer to the pace at which the department should be corporatised.

The matter was discussed by the telecom commission in its last meeting and has assumed great significance in recent times in the face of increased competition from private operators. Highly placed sources say that there is pressure from the highest policy making echelons of the government in hastening the process of retsructuring within the DoT.

Historically, the DoT and the Department of Posts (DoP) were combined under the ministry of communications as the P&T Board. In 1985 the two were separated and separate boards were set for telecommunications and posts. In 1989, the DoT superstructure was further modified by upgrading the telecom board to the telecom commission with the secretary DoT functioning as the Telecom Commission chairman and consisting of four full time mebers, Memeber (services), member (production), member (technology) and member (finance) apart from four part-time ex-officio members who are secreatries from the ministries of finance, industry, department of electronics and the planning commission. This telecom commission was also vested with the powers of carrying out the functions of the DoT.

Of the two views which have emerged in the corridors of Sanchar Bhawan, the first one involves the telecom commission becoming the operating arm with the government taking care of the policy matters and such regulatory functions which have not so far been transferred to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The note suggests that this body may be conferred the requisite powers and autonomy to take all decisions which have a bearing on their telecom operations.

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