ISRO chief vows to release reports on banned scientists
31 Jan 2012
Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan today reacted for the first time to allegations against him over the blacklisting of his predecessor G Madhavan Nair and three other ISRO scientists, saying he was seeking the public release of the reports of two committees on the controversial Antrix-Devas deal, which led to the action.
In a press statement, Radhakrishnan said the Department of Space is in the process of getting necessary clearances for releasing the reports of the 'high powered review committee' and the 'high level team' formed to examine various aspects of the Antrix-Devas agreement of January 2005.
The deal, relating to the allegedly cheap sale of S-band spectrum, caused some stir last year, but escaped widespread public attention as it occurred when the '2G scam' was dominating the headlines.
"The Department is in the process of getting necessary clearances for releasing the reports of the two committees viz. (a) the High Powered Review Committee set up by government on 10 February 2011 (with B K Chaturvedi and Prof Roddam Narasimha as members), and (b) The High Level Team set up by government on 31 May 2011 (chaired by Pratyush Sinha) to examine various aspects of the Antrix-Devas agreement of January 2005," Radhakrishnan who is also secretary to the Department of Space, stated.
Following the reports of the two committees, the department of science under the home ministry had, on 13 January, barred ISRO's previous chairman Madhavan Nair, former scientific secretary in ISRO A Bhaskarnarayana, former director, ISRO Satellite Centre K N Shankara and former executive director of Antrix K R Sridharamurthi from holding any government job or any membership in a government committee in future.
The space department wrote to all state governments about the barring of the four former space scientists.
Reacting angrily, Nair had squarely blamed Radhakrishnan, accusing him of pursuing a "personal agenda" of which he and the others were victims.
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