New TRAI Chairman for continuity

New Delhi, Mar 22 (UNI) New TRAI Chairman Nripendra Misra, who today formally took charge of the regulatory body for the next three years, said that he would continue with the policies of his predecessor Pradip Baijal and ruled out any alleged differences with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

He also ruled out any ''start with a clean slate'' and said no fresh approach to the existing policies would be made.

Mr Baijal completed his three-year term yesterday.

Speaking after taking over office, Mr Misra said there were no moves by DoT to remove Mr Baijal when he was heading the Authority and denied any differences between DoT and TRAI.

''There were no such differences between the two,'' Mr Misra clarified.

Mr Misra, a 1967 batch IAS officer, will be the first TRAI chairman with prior experience in the telecom sector. He had worked as chairman of the Telecom Commission and as secretary of the DoT.

In the recent past TRAI and DoT were at loggerheads over several issues including the contentious scrapping of the Access Deficit Charges (ADC).

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