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SCRAP OVER NEW
IT MINISTRY
A tussle is on within the government
with the communications ministry headed by the ever
enthusiastic Ram Vilas Paswan not willing to give
up some of the powers and areas of jurisdiction to
the newly-created Information Technology ministry.
The IT ministry's role is still not
clear as both the communications and information and
broadcasting ministries not too willing to let go
of their turf. For example, the issue of convergence
and broadcasting fall within the ambit of the I&B
ministry, but issues such as frequency allocations
for FM radio broadcasting and uplinking permission
to broadcasters fall within the jurisdiction of the
communications ministry, though a formal no-objection
certificate has to come from the I&B ministry.
If the minister of state for I&B,
Arun Jaitley, is more subdued on the nebulous nature
of the IT ministry, communications minister Paswan
has already gone ahead and made announcements regarding
taking the Internet revolution to villages and dhabas
(roadside eateries).
Broadcasters too are bit wary of the
new set up being created in the form of the IT ministry.
Said a senior executive of Zee Telefilms Ltd, which
has growing business interests in TV broadcasting,
multimedia, Internet, FM radio broadcasting and cable
distribution, "Nice of the government to give an example
of the importance it attaches to information technology,
but a new ministry is likely to mean more clearances
and permissions which can hinder the growth of related
industries."
With former I&B minister Pramod Mahajan
not yet named the IT minister as had been hinted by
the PMO earlier --- though MP from West Bengal, Tapan
Sikdar's name is doing the rounds in the last two
days --- the situation becomes tricky.
Sources in the PMO indicated that there
is a school of thought which feels that instead of
a high-profile IT minister like Mahajan, it is better
to have a minister of state for IT in Sikdar under
the overall supervision of the Prime Minister.
"This has two advantages: one the PMO
can directly push through IT-related policies and,
secondly, if the IT portfolio is retained by the Prime
Minister then other heavyweight ministers like Paswan
can be more easily tackled."
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