‘Ministries cautious in clearing projects’
Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said the recent 2G case judgment has made ministries cautious in clearing or allotting projects.
“I have myself asked my personal assistant to stop a developmental project allotment that was about to be cleared. I have asked the secretary to check and recheck every tender in detail before we clear the allotment in any project. Of course, this would certainly cause a delay in the implementation of projects but then most of the ministries have decided to adopt a cautious approach in clearing projects,” Pawar said.
Addressing a press conference, Pawar defended Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s role in the 2G scam, reiterating time and again: “Even the Supreme Court in its judgment has not cast any aspersions on PM. Though I am still in the process of reading the judgment but whatever I have read I found that SC has not indicted the PM.”
Pawar read out an annexure of a letter written by the Prime Minister to A Raja, attached in the judgment copy. Pawar said the letter, which has been taken into account by the apex court, clearly reveals that Manmohan Singh had asked for “transparency and fair rates.”
However, Pawar admitted that the judgment in all likelihood “ would spark of a debate in nations which are keen to invest here.” Taking a potshot at the previous BJP-led NDA government, Pawar said: “Protocol does not come up one fine day. It is a system which is usually laid down by previous government and successive governments just follow it till some flaws are found.”
