PAC members squabble over scope of examining 2G scam

Members who walked out of the hour-and-a-half long meeting kept silence on the alleged flare up.

“I wouldn’t comment on the meeting. It is supposed to be highly confidential," former Finance Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha told Deccan Herald, when asked about the proceedings at the meeting.

Headed by BJP’s M M Joshi, PAC's examinations have been welcomed by the Congress which is resisting opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum issue.  Chief of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India  J S Sarma and former Secretary of the Department of Telecom, Sidharth Behura, was  to appear  on Tuesday before the PAC to explain the 2G issue.

Joshi, who heads the 22-MP committee, has made it clear that the PAC has constitutional rights to check on the financial irregularities of the 2G spectrum issue. The Committee has 14 Lok Sabha and 7 Rajya Sabha members.  

However, the PAC's decision to carry on with its examination of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the issue has caused discomfort for the BJP and NDA coalition, which is insisting on the JPC probing over the 2G spectrum, the CWG and Adarsh scams.

 Pranab to talk to allies

New Delhi, dhns: The Congress core committee, which met here on Tuesday to discuss the Opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the 2G spectrum scandal, asked Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to talk to the UPA allies to assess their views on the issue. The meeting attended among others by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the stand taken by some of the allies favouring the JPC. The meeting discussed the pros and cons of going for the probe.