'Raja's arrest will not affect PAC proceedings'

Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said on Thursday that no decision had been taken regarding the offer made by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to appear before the PAC for questioning in the 2G spectrum scam. 

"If we require information from Dr Singh we can write to the Prime Minister's Office and get the required details related to the 2G scam. When we take a decision on the same the media will be the first to know," he said.   

The senior Bharatiya Janata Party denied that the arrest of former telecom minister A Raja would have any bearing on the proceedings of the PAC. "We are not concerned whether Raja has been arrested or not. It is between him and the investigative agency," he said.

Dr D Subbarao, governor, Reserve Bank of India and former secretary of the ministry of finance, appeared before the PAC and answered questions relating to how the interaction between the finance ministry and department of telecommunication takes place. "Since Dr Subbarao was the finance secretary he gave us information relating to interaction between the finance ministry and department of telecommunication. He has given us some important information," Joshi said. However, refused to divulge details.

The PAC also discussed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and nutrition for mid-day meals for the school children and asked the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct a comprehensive audit of these programmes, as there was lot of mismanagement involved. It directed the CAG to send its teams to districts to find out where things have gone wrong.