New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam chief M Karunanidhi has defended his party colleague and Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Communications and Information Technology A Raja against corruption charges.
Karunanidhi claimed that Raja has only been following the policy laid down by the previous National Democratic Alliance government.
He also rejected allegations that telecom licences and spectrum were given at throwaway prices causing a loss of over Rs 50,000 crore to the government.
He said the charges were aimed at defaming the DMK and its ministers.
Karunanidhi wrote in his party organ Murasoli that the policy of allotting spectrum on a first come first served basis has been followed since the days of the NDA government when Arun Shourie was the communication minister.
Karunanidhi also pointed out that Shourie's successor Dayanidhi Maran also followed the same policy like Raja while allotting spectrum space.
The DMK chief's statement comes even as the much awaited and delayed spectrum allocation process is all set to be kicked off.
Sources say the government is likely to begin spectrum allocation in the next seven to 10 days.
The main contenders in line include Datacom, Unitech, Swan, Loop, Tata Tele and Bharti in the Delhi and Rajasthan region.
Datacom is the first in line for the allotment in Delhi where it expects to get 3.2 mega hertz and in the Rajasthan region it expects to get 4.4 mega hertz.
The allotment will be on trial basis and will be subjected to court cases and the companies will have to pay fee charged by the Department of Telecommunications.
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