BJP seeks to keep 2G issue alive in PAC

With the 2G spectrum issue getting caught in a logjam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sought to bring the matter to the forefront of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, saying the matter is pending and should be disposed of.

The demand to settle the pending issue came at the first meeting of the newly-constituted PAC.

BJP member Prakash Javadekar raised the issue of the PAC's draft report on the 2G scam, saying it was still a pending agenda and sought to know when it would be taken up.

PAC Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi has kept the 2G issue alive by mentioning in the documents circulated to the members that the "draft report on 'recent developments in the telecom sector, including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum' was also circulated to members of the PAC (2011-12)."

When the previous committee came into being, Joshi had mentioned the draft report as a "pending agenda" of the PAC.

The draft report of the JPC on 2G scam had given a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram. It had accused former telecom minister A Raja of misleading the PM on the issue of 2G spectrum allocation.

The JPC has not met after the draft report was circulated in April amid sharp differences between opposition and United Progressive Alliance members.

Fifteen opposition members in the 30-member committee had rejected the draft and had expressed no confidence in panel chief P C Chacko. Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar had to step in to calm the tempers.

In its first meeting, the new PAC on Friday decided to take up 39 agendas in the next one year, including new issues like farm loan waiver and pending reports on coal block allocation and Commonwealth Games scam.

Members agreed to take up new agendas, including the CAG report on farm loan waiver and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Another latest CAG report on delay in production and issue of rockets for Pinaka Rocket launching system by ordnance factories will also be taken up.

The issues taken up by the previous committee on which reports are pending will also be dealt with. These include, the Commonwealth Games scam, K G Basin Delta, coal block allocation and ultra mega power projects.

The PAC is on the verge of finalising its reports on these issues.

The decision to take up the contentious CAG report on UPA's much talked about farm loan waiver scheme has set the tone for yet another political clash.

The CAG report on farm loans tabled in Parliament in March pointed out that several ineligible farmers were favoured and a large number of deserving small and marginal farmers ignored in implementing the Rs 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme.

The CAG said it found discrepancies involving 6,822 out of a sample of 80,229 farmers who were granted debt waiver or relief under the scheme.