PMO blacklists ex-ISRO chief Nair from government jobs

New Delhi, Jan 25: Government blacklisted former ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair and three other eminent space scientists from the government positions over the controversial Antrix-Devas deal. The decision made Former ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair angry on current leadership of India's space research agency and Prime Minister's office.

Indian Space Research organization violated the rules and allotted scarce S band spectrum to Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia.

The contract was signed when Nair served as the chairman of ISRO. ISRO official claimed that Department of space have given punishment to Nair, KR Sridharamurthi, former managing director of Antrix K Bhaskaranarayana, former scientific secretary at ISRO and KN Shankara, former director of the ISRO satellite centre over that controversial deal.

"If there is any such allegation, the proper thing to do is to give the accused person a charge-sheet and then follow that with an inquiry," said Nair.

Nair accused the current leadership of ISRO for presenting distorted facts. Even he stated that they didn't follow the due process of investigation.

"It looks like the (current) leadership of ISRO is eager to cancel the previous contract for some reason," he added.

After considering high--powered committee's report, government took the decision. Even the report was examined by another panel.

Last year, a high-level team was formed under the Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha for examining the Antrix-Devas agreement.

OneIndia News