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The Department of Space is trying to make public the reports of the two committees that last year probed the controversial Antrix-Devas agreement.
The DoS Secretary and ISRO Chairman, Dr K. Radhakrishnan, came out with a statement to this effect on Tuesday, reacting for the first time since the issue erupted in early January.
A secret DoS order dated January 13 that got into the press on January 25 said the former ISRO chief, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, and three other retired senior ISRO officials should not be re-employed or taken on any government assignment for their alleged role in the agreement of 2005 - which was annulled in February 2011.
Ever since then, Mr Nair has gone ballistic against the second probe and dragged his successor, Dr Radhakrishnan, into it saying the four technocrats were singled out; and that the action was vendetta. Opposition parties have also questioned the Government on not releasing the probe report
The ISRO release quoting Dr Radhakrishnan said, “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 setup by Government on February 10, 2011, (with Shri B.K. Chaturvedi and Prof. Roddam Narasimha as Members), and (b) the [five-member] High Level Team set up by the Government on May 31, 2011 (chaired by Mr Pratyush Sinha) to examine various aspects of the Antrix-Devas agreement of January 2005”.
Requesting not to be named, an insider said the latest ISRO move seemed to be an effort by the present DoS chief to clear his name in the mess.
The Antrix-Devas deal was signed and cleared when Mr Nair headed the entire space establishment and also was Chairman of Antrix. According to it, ISRO was to build two satellites for Devas and preferentially allowed it to lucratively tap the S-band spectrum, hitherto not allocated to any private industry.
It could have reportedly caused a phenomenal notional loss to the exchequer.
Post-February 2011, the Prime Minister's office which oversees the DoS cancelled the deal and decided to keep the S-band only for the use of the Government and Defence.
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