New Delhi: The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has extended the tenure of R S Sharma as Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for two more years and he will remain in office till September 30, 2020. As the TRAI Act does not provide for an extension of the chairman’s post, the government is learned to have re-appointed Sharma as chairman.
This is for the first time that any TRAI chief has got an extension beyond the three-year tenure. RS Sharma was supposed to retire on Thursday.
‘’The ACC has approved the re-appointment of Ram Sewak Sharma as chairperson, TRAI, for a further period beyond August 10, 2018 up to September 30, 2020, i.e the date on which he attains the age of 65 years or until further orders, whichever is earlier,’’ an official order said.
Sharma was recently at the centre of a controversy after he threw a Twitter challenge on the safety of Aadhaar. He had put out his unique number on the micro-blogging site, prompting social media to go viral on the issue.
He had an action-packed tenure during which the telecom industry faced severe financial stress.
When Sharma assumed charge in 2015, one of his first pro-customer moves was the call drop compensation regulation, which was later struck down by the Supreme Court. After that, he came out with measures on improving the quality of services of telecom consumers.
During his first tenure, TRAI also came out with mobile apps like Do Not Disturb (DND), Mycall, speed test etc, to help consumers.
