A V Birla group on Wednesday informed the government that there was "no iota of substance" in the termination notice served on them by the Tatas on their joint venture Idea Cellular and dubbed it as "an attempt to divert the attention" from real issues.
Responding to a notice served earlier this week by Tata Industries saying they would proceed to purchase the equity of the AV Birla group within 90 days, Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd shot off a letter to the Department of Telecom questioning the substance of the notice, sources in the know said.
In a brief communication to the DoT secretary, Birlas, who hold about 51 per cent equity in the joint venture, referred to media reports about the notice and said that the timing of it (notice) tells a different story and said: "It is an attempt to divert attention from the serious issues of licence conditions and telecom policy."
Birlas had earlier in February asked the DoT to direct Tatas to expeditiously exit from Idea as it had allegedly flouted licence conditions.
In their communication on Wednesday, Birlas once again asked the government's intervention for "earliest determination" of the issues raised by them relating to compliance of licence conditions by Tatas, who hold over 48 per cent stake in Idea.
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