2G logjam: Pranab Mukherjee to meet Opposition today

NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will hold another round of discussions with the opposition to break the logjam in Parliament over the 2G scam today.

This was decided at a meeting of Congress core group last evening that was attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi as Parliament.

Parliament’s Winter Session that began November 9 has witnessed repeated adjournments over the opposition’s insistence for a JPC probe into the scam, even after A. Raja resigned as Communications and IT Minister last Sunday.

Both BJP and the Left have noted that a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry underway into the matter, cannot be taken seriously.

On the other hand, the government has stressed that a JPC is not necessary as a thorough audit of the 2G allocation by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), will be studied by parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that is headed by the BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi.

The 2G spectrum allocation has reportedly caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crores to the Government, the CAG has stated in a damning report.

The report further states that Raja had no apparent logical or valid reasons to ignore the advice of the Law and Finance Ministries while allocating telecom spectrum to several firms in 2007-08. (ANI)