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Thomas K Thomas

Maran to meet senior officials to discuss suggestions

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New Delhi Jan. 21 In a bid to make the consumer complaint redressal mechanism more effective, the Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, will be meeting senior officials from Department of Telecom and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to discuss giving more powers to the telecom regulator.

TRAI has proposed a slew of measures including increasing the tenure of the Chairperson and other Board members to five years from the present term of three years and powers to impose punitive measures against operators who violate quality of service norms. TRAI has sent a list of its demands to the Ministry of Communications. Senior officials in DoT said preliminary discussions had taken place between Mr D.S. Mathur, Secretary, DoT, and the TRAI Chairman, Mr Nripendra Misra. A meeting with the Minister is scheduled over the next few weeks.

Sources indicated that TRAI might be given more teeth to address consumer issues such as quality of service. TRAI has been regularly highlighting the fact that while mobile services are of poor quality, it does not have the power to take action against the operators.

Amending Act

The telecom regulator has also sought to amend the TRAI Act to allow Board members and the Chairperson to take up employment with other Government agencies after demitting office.

As per the existing law, a TRAI Board member cannot seek employment in Central or State Government and other statutory authorities.

"Such a move appears unreasonable.. The Chairperson/Members of Competition Commission as also of SEBI are eligible for future employment in Central/State Government, local/statutory Authority," said a letter written by Mr Misra.

On extending the tenure, Mr Misra said "The three-year tenure is rather short for making effective contribution to the sector. The Competition Act and IRDA Act have provisions for a five-year tenure for the chairperson and the members. It is accordingly proposed to revise the tenures for Chairperson and Members of TRAI to bring it on a par with other regulatory authorities."

TRAI has been seeking more powers from the Government from time to time. The earlier Chairman, Mr Pradip Baijal, had asked the Government to give it financial independence by funding its activities from the licence fee collected from the telecom operators rather than from the Consolidated Fund of India.

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