After Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) chief Nandan Nilekani, it is now the turn of telecom czar Sam Pitroda to experience the inter-ministerial differences over the UPA’s ambitious National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which he has been spearheading. The NOFN project is aimed at providing last-mile broadband connectivity to each of the six lakh village panchayats.
Ahead of the Union Budget for 2012-13, a battle seems to be brewing between the finance and communications and IT ministries over the type of funding that needs to be provided for the project. The ministry of finance wants the project to be executed out of the plan fund whereas the communications and IT ministry wants to fund the project from the non-plan side of the Union Budget.
Recently, the ministry of home affairs and the Planning Commission had a running feud over biometric data collection by the Nilakeni-led UIDAI, which got resolved only after Dr Manmohan Singh’s intervention. The Planning Commission happens to be the secretariat for the UIDAI. Similarly, the communications and IT ministry happens to be secretariat for the NOFN project headed by Mr Pitroda. Both the technocrats from the private sector are understood to have the PM’s full support in their respective endeavours.
Initially, when the project worth `25,000 crore was approved in July last year, it was decided to fund the project under the non-plan head of the budget. For the rest of the financial year 2011-12, `2,000 crore was released to begin the work under the non-plan head only.
“Now the finance ministry wants the expenditure of about `8,500 crore for the next fiscal year (2012-13) on the project to come under plan expenses. But the communications and IT ministry has opposed the proposal, quoting the original decision with the fact that it is of great national importance,” sources said.