The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) on Wednesday said that private members on the Board of the National Internet Exchange of India had raised objections to the ₹2.1 billion Wi-Fi project during the board meeting.
Rajesh Chharia, President, ISPAI, said in a statement that, board members objected to the ERNET project in the Board meeting on many accounts and have suggested various points for betterment of the project and the Chairperson, (who) happens to be Secretary, MeitY, has also agreedThe primary objection raised by the members is against withdrawing ₹2.1 billion from NIXI’s account for the project without getting the approval of its Corporate Governance committee.
The primary objection raised by the members is against withdrawing ₹2.1billion from NIXI’s account for the project without getting the approval of its Corporate Governance committee.
Rajiv Bansal, Chief Executive Officer of NIXI and a Joint Secretary at the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, had said the proposal had been approved by the NIXI board unanimously and the objections were raised by some of the private members later.
ISPAI said the project, which was proposed by ERNET, bypassed the Corporate Governance Committee and was introduced to the Board directly. The Directors observed that the value of the project was bigger than the net worth of NIXI. As per the experience of directors from Industry, it was suggested that the cost shown in the proposal was very high for covering 500 metres of radius, Chharia said.
Chharia, who is one of private board member on NIXI, said that though the concept of the project in-principle was approved by directors, it was subject to reviewing and reworking based on the objections raised.
By Baishakhi Dutta
