An embarrassed government is all set to annul the controversial Antrix-Devas contract with the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) slated to meet on Friday in which a decision to scrap the agreement is likely to be taken. The ministries concerned have recommended annulling the deal and sought additional probe into the award of the contract, sources said.

Antrix, the commercial arm of the Isro is charged with giving away 70 MHz of S-band spectrum to Devas Multimedia at throwaway prices and without competitive bidding and thus reportedly leading to a loss of crores of rupees to the exchequer.
Speaking about the controversial agreement while speaking to editors from the electronic media here on Wednesday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stoutly maintained, “The fact is that the contract was not operational in any practical sense.”
To charges that top PMO officials were involved in some “backdoor” talks with Devas, the PM denied that any such thing happened. The PM, who holds charge of the department of space under which Isro comes said, “There have been no backroom talks...” He further said, “There have been no efforts in the Prime Minister’s Office to dilute, in any way, the decision taken by the Space Commission in July 2010.”
The Space Commission had on July 2, 2010, recommended that the agreement be scrapped, said the PM. He further said that though this decision was taken in July, the delay in doing so was “procedural”.
As he explained, “The actual Cabinet note was received from the department of space in the PMO only in November 2010. And even then there were a number of consultations to polish it up. At the most you can say that between November and now the Prime Minister’s Office has got this note ready for the Cabinet.”
He added, “After the receipt of the note for the Cabinet from the department of space for preparation of the Cabinet note a number of ministries were consulted and the department of space itself took six revisions of the note before finally submitting it for approval.”
“It is certainly true that a number of letters were received by members of Space Commission including officials in the PMO from Devas after August 2010 including as late as a few days ago. Letters were also received in the PMO from the US Chamber of Commerce but no action was taken on any of these letters which were merely filed. At no stage was department of space asked by the PMO to comment on the points made in the letters,” the PM added.

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Devas warns of legal action
New Delhi, Feb. 16: Objecting to a government move to annul its contract with Antrix following the S-band spectrum controversy, Devas Multimedia on Wednesday said it will take “strong” legal steps to protect its rights and interests.
Contending that it had a legally-binding agreement with Antrix, Devas said it expected the government to fulfil all its obligations under the agreement. “We have grave concerns regarding the government’s statement on pre-meditated annulment of the agreement, despite pending high-power committee and CAG reviews which are still in the preliminary stages,” a statement said. —PTI

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Kalaignar TV: Accounts clean
Chennai, Feb. 16: Days after denying links with the 2G scam, DMK’s first-family owned Kalaignar TV on Wednesday said the respective agencies, including the CBI, were welcome to verify its documents and accounts. “We had already clarified that there is no link between the 2G spectrum allocation done in 2007-08 and the loan transaction that took place between Kalaignar TV and Cineyug Films Private Limited in 2009,” the channel’s managing director Sharad Kumar said. —PTI