VSNL ‘land grab’: Shourie puts onus on Chidambaram, Pranab
23 Mar 2011
Former disinvestment and telecom minister Arun Shourie on Tuesday put the blame on the current UPA government for the delay in demerging the 773-acre surplus land of the government undertaking Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (now majority owned by Tata Communications).
In a newspaper interview, he particularly put the onus on two of the UPA's heavyweight ministers, P Chidambaram (who was earlier the finance minister) and current finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
''If there has been a delay and a costly delay, well, have an inquiry against them (Chidambaram and Mukherjee),'' Shourie said.
Responding to the inquiry that has been ordered by telecom minister Kapil Sibal into the delay, Shourie said, ''If they call me, I will go and tell what happened and say ask the rest from Chidambaram and Mukherjee.''
Shourie said that when VSNL was disinvested in 2002, stringent guidelines were put in the sale clause wherein no benefit would accrue to the bidder from the demerged land and its sale or any form of revenue and shareholding in the resultant company.
''Then came the matter of transferring the land. VSNL said that if it transfers, it will have to pay a stamp duty of Rs500 crore. It said, and logically so, that when it is neither the owner of the land nor will it be its beneficiary in any form, why should it pay the stamp duty?