[IAC#RG] My Public Grievance regarding WIFI in Delhi - Stakeholder Consultations

To:
Secretary IT/GoNCTD - Shri Arun Baroka
cc: Addl. Secy IT/GoNCTD - Shri A Chagti

26 April 2015

Dear Sir,

I refer to the recent emails from your IT Consultant Shri Gaurav Verma
and also the attached final schedule for stakeholder consultations
spanning dates of 24,25 and 27 April 2015 for the subject matter -
WIFI in Delhi.

I cannot find my name anywhere in this process, and no time has been
allocated for me to speak - whereas other persons are being allotted
20 minutes each. The tentative schedule had slots for 19 persons to
speak, but now there are 28 speakers.

Accordingly I must inform you very clearly that I am reliably informed
that large telecom companies like Airtel and Vodafone have been
accommodated with slots at the last moment in the presenters list, and
almost certainly by using dubious means, and so as to prevent me or
people like me from speaking on 27th April 2015 during the
consultation, and rendering the so-called public consultation as a
hollow farce.

I was informed through my sources that this substitution has been done
at the instance of one Shri Ashish Khetan, a journalist of some sort
who was seemingly well known for his paid / managed news articles on
behalf of some TSPs before he entered politics and who is now employed
with some Delhi Dialogue Commission which is interfering in your
consultation process.

You will surely recall the egazette No. 2/06/2015/DDC/AR/2283-2452
Comp.No: eGaz(2015)/1/30 dated 26/3/2015 of Administrative Reforms
dept signed by yourself in this connection, which clearly mentions
that Shri Khetan is a honorary and non-official persosn in this
advisory body.

I find that the so-called Delhi Dialogue Commission had also issued
press releases seeking "crowdsourcing" for 10 frivolous queries on
WiFi in Delhi at about the time the GoNCTD issued its own official
public notice through your IT Dept.

Hence, kindly note that not only am I strongly objecting to not being
given a specific slot to speak and as earlier informed, but I am also
objecting to the deliberate confusion being caused by the so-called
Delhi Dialogue Commission, which seems to be controlled by a
fraternity of "facilitators", ie. "touts". Needless to say the website
of this so-called "Delhi Dialogue Commission" is highly evasive and
incomplete and has no mention of the names appearing in the media as
connected with this scheme.

Hence, I am again informing you directly, that under no circumstance
am I interested in speaking before or acknowledging in any way, any
person who is not a public servant or a full time gazetted Government
officer, for this matter of WIFI in Delhi, when I appear tomorrow.

I am especially concerned that this WiFi scheme is a massive SCAM to
siphon off and use Central Govt funds under NEGP using the SEMT and
the NEGD missions. As you are over busy with the PWD function of
GoNCTD, you may not recall the 2012 policy circular issued by your
predecessor in office as Secy./IT - Shri Rajendra Kumar -
No.F6(138)/IT/2012/2760 which deals with the subject and which only
speaks of making such e-services available AT AFFORDABLE COSTS to the
common man.

Alternatively, I am receiving credible reports that major new
entrant/s into the wireless internet infrastructure space shall misuse
the AAP's election promise of free WIFI to install their
multi-frequency towers / poles cheaply or free or to encroach on
public spaces.

For instance I would certainly like to know from the LG/GoNCTD how/why
Reliance Jio's massive boxes, pipes and cables were installed in the
DDA park outside my residence at Dwarka/Delhi, and have not been
removed for over 1 year.

Since the SEMT and NEGD is in already place, it is therefore not known
to the public-at-large how some persons from outside Delhi like some
Dr. Pranesh Prakash and Mr. Mahesh Murthy were reportedly selected to
be a part of a task force for implementing WIFI in Delhi. I strongly
apprehend that such persons have been co-opted via the irregular route
of Delhi Dialogue Commission at the behest of the large telecom
players and so as to also scuttle participation from Delhi residents
in the public consultation processes of GoNCTD for WiFi.

As I am taking up your Dept's offer to attend tomorrow, 27 April, I
would appreciate your personal intervention to ensure that I am
treated equitably and that I am not caused to object to presence of
outsiders in official processes.

With best wishes

Sincerely,

Er. Sarbajit Roy

B-59 Defence Colony
New Delhi - 110024
Tel: 08010205897