Divestment Secretary Pradip Baijal is all set to become chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India after his superannuation this month-end with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is likely to clear his name soon.

According to highly placed sources, Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani has already cleared the appointment of Baijal as a regulator for the highly-divided telecom industry.

The term of present TRAI Chief M S Verma, who was in the firing line of both the telecom consumers and the industry, will expire soon.

Baijal's name was cleared by the Search Committee of the Cabinet. Significantly, Telecommunication and Divestment Minister Arun Shourie, under whom Baijal is working now, was not the member of this body, sources said.

Meanwhile Secretary in the Drinking Water Department Meenakshi Sundaram has been named as the new Divestment Secretary.

Sundaram, who has started familiarising himself in the divestment department, was present at the farewell of Baijal on Wednesday.

Shourie praised Baijal for his upright personality and the way he steered divestment of some of the high profile companies facing extreme pressure.

UNI