business news|Divide within govt over 3G auction delay

What’s causing the delay in the auction of third-generation wireless telephone technology or 3G?  Government sources tell NDTV that in addition to the technical issues, which have already affected the auction, now the government has to deal with political differences as well. 
3G allows telecom operators to provide high-speed services to customers for downloading data on mobile phones. Auctioning this will bring the government 3000 crores, but NDTV has learnt that there are serious divisions within the group of ministers, led by Pranab Mukherjee, who’re handling the issue. This group includes some of the government’s most senior ministers, including P Chidambaram and Sharad Pawar.
The last meeting to discuss a possible auction was held on January 12.  Here, some ministers suggested that the auction take place as quickly as possible.  However, the minutes released earlier this week show a delayed auction was the consensus. This has upset some of the ministers involved. 
Now, the Prime Minister along with Mukherjee, has decided that instead of next month, the auctions will take place in August.
The Law Minister, Veerappa Moily, in fact, wants to delay the auction even further.  Here’s why. The government has approved the auction of 4 slots.  But the 3G spectrum is controlled by the Defence Ministry.  Currently, the government only has enough spectrum for 2 slots. The Defence Ministry is expected to vacate enough spectrum  for a third slot by September this year, and the fourth slot only by 2011.
Moily doesn’t want the auction to take place till the government has got enough spectrum for all the slots it’s selling.
Otherwise, if the government sells these now, and accepts payment, it will be open to legal action by the buyers if the Defence Ministry doesn’t vacate the 3G spectrum on schedule.