Government To Disband Telecom Body DCC: Report DCC was being seen as an unnecessary layer that is leading to delays in decision-making on important telecom matters, as per the report
By Teena Jose
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The Centre has decided to disband the Digital Communication Commission (DCC), a multi-ministry apex decision-making body overseeing all critical telecom matters, and hand over the crucial and large-budget decisions to the Department of Expenditure (DoE) under the Finance Ministry, according to a TOI report.
The matter will be to be taken up by the Union Cabinet very soon, top sources told TOI, adding DCC was being seen as an unnecessary layer that is leading to delays in decision-making on important telecom matters, stated the report.
"This introduction of additional requirement of in-principle clearance from DoE for any new scheme renders DCC effectively devoid of any administrative and financial powers (limited budget and establishment set-up) and even appraisal power is now circumscribed by requirement of in-principle clearance by the DoE. The process of introducing another layer of in-principle approval before any scheme is put to DCC will defeat the purpose of the body as it would lead to further delay and would be remedy worse than other department where at least both in-principle approval as well as appraisal is done by DoE," said the report citing the sources aware of the matter.
Moreover, the report further declared that, as the DCC gets disbanded, there would also be re-designation of key members who are part of it and are involved in the decision-making of the body. So, the Member (Finance) will be re-designated as Director-General (Finance), Member (Technology) as Director-General (Technology), and Member (Services) as Director-General (Services). They will report to the Telecom Secretary.
The DCC was established in October 2018, from the erstwhile Telecommunication Commission which had originally come into being in April 1989. Telecom Secretary chaired the DCC along with other members include the CEO of Niti Aayog, and Secretaries of the Department of Economic Affairs, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), and Electronics and IT.
