Lok Sabha adopts JPC report on 2G scam

New Delhi – The Lok Sabha Monday adopted the 2G JPC report exonerating Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P. Chidambaram of any wrongdoing, while blaming former telecom minister A. Raja for the faulty alloca! tion of spectrum.

The DMK, Raja’s party and former Congressally, walked out in protest.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar put the report up for approval of the house, and it was passed by voice vote after P.C. Chacko, who headed the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) that conducted the probe and authored the report, tabled it.

The speaker also rejected notices by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha and CPI-M leader Basudeb Acharia for a debate on the report in the house.

The report, adopted by the majority of the JPC members Sep 27, had disagreed with the the Comptroller and Auditor General’s finding that the 2G scam caused a loss of Rs.1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

It also charged the National Democratic Alliance government 1998-2004 of causing losses worth over Rs.40,000 crore because of the telecom policy it pursued while allocating spectrum.

JPC chairman P.C. Chacko submitted the report on the 2G scam along with six dissenting notes to the Speaker Oct 29, after the parliamentary committee inquired int! o the scam for 19 months.

Former union minister of telecommunications A. Raja then urged the Lok Sabha Speaker to return the JPC report on the 2G scam, saying it was partisan and with political overtones.

Raja said that his dissent note submitted to the panel chief April 22, 2013, was not been included in the final report.

Earlier, BJP members of the JPC had boycotted the committee’s meetings over demands to call the prime minister and the finance minister for deposition. They later started attending the sessions.