Antrix-Devas deal under Estimates Panel's scanner

NEW DELHI: Parliament's Estimates Committee began its probe in the controversial Antrix-Devas deal on scarce S-band space segment on Wednesday posing some tough questions to ISRO officials and seeking documents like copies of contract, timeline of decisions and internal enquiry reports.

The parliamentary panel, chaired by Congress MP Francisco Sardinha, asked ISRO officials if the entire controversy could be a "larger corporate design" to vacate the space segment because of paucity in the 3G spectrum.

The panel also questioned the organisational structure pointing out that one person - ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan - held top four posts in Antrix, Department of Space and Space Commission. A member of the committee pointed out that if all the posts were held by ISRO chairman then passing the decision-making buck to somebod else was nothing but creating artificial walls within the organisation.

The meeting started with Dr Radhakrishnan's presentation on the deal under which Antrix Corporation, ISRO's commercial arm, had agreed to lease bulk space segment in S-band on two satellites to Devas.

ISRO officials briefed that the deal was such that ISRO would have had to bear most of the developmental cost and risk while Devas would have got all benefits. Later, members posed tough questions on how the commercial price of S band was determined, why was the deal terminated and how was the decision to give the S-band to Devas was taken.