Chacko to head JPC on 2G probe
Setting in motion the JPC probe into the alleged 2G spectrum allocation, Speaker Meira Kumar on Friday named senior Congress leader P.C. Chacko to head the 30-member panel, including 20 members from Lok Sabha and the rest from Rajya Sabha.
Informing about the Speaker’s decision, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said, Mr Chacko, who represents Thrissur in Kerala in the Lok Sabha, will head the panel, which came into being a few days back, ending three-months’ deadlock in Parliament between the government and the Opposition. The Opposition had latched on to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General late last year which claimed a loss of `1.76 lakh crore to the public exchequer on account of 2G spectrum allocations.
The two Houses of Parliament have already passed resolutions approving the setting up of the JPC. A. Raja, former telecom minister, was forced to quit in November in the wake of the CAG report and is currently lodged in Tihar Jail.
The JPC will examine irregularities and aberrations, if any, in the implementation of government decisions and policy prescriptions on telecom licences and spectrum from 1998 to 2009. The parliamentary panel will also make recommendations to ensure appropriate procedures for allocation and pricing of telecom licences. It will also examine policy prescriptions and their interpretation by successive governments, including the decisions of the Union Cabinet and the consequences thereof in the allocation and pricing of licences and spectrum.
Post new comment