New Delhi, April 30: Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi on Saturday submitted a copy of the controversial PAC draft report on 2G spectrum scam to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. PAC officials handed over a copy of the report to Meira Kumar on behalf of Joshi.
The tenure of the existing PAC lapses at 5.00 pm today. Joshi is expected to address a press conference later in the evening.
The 270-page long PAC report on 2G scam is mired in controversy amid animated allegations and counter allegations from Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA. Eleven out of 20 members – belonging to Congress, DMK, Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) – claimed to have voted down the draft at Thursday’s meeting.
The Public Accounts Committee has, in the draft report, strongly indicted former telecom minister A Raja and came down heavily on the Prime Minister’s Office and the Cabinet Secretariat for not taking “corrective action” while not sparing even the Prime Minister for “some unfortunate omissions”.
The report is also understood to have attacked the then finance minister P Chidambaram for recommending to PM to “treat the matter as closed” instead of taking against those responsible for loss to the exchequer.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has termed the report as a “gross distortion” of facts.
“Joshi’s draft report was a gross distortion of the note and mischievously commented I had pleaded with the Prime Minister to treat the matter as closed,” Chidambaram said.
He claimed that “his note dealt with spectrum usage charges alone and suggested three measures for raising revenues, including a measure to raise additional revenues from licencees who held spectrum over and above the start-up spectrum by charging, prospectively the price discovered in the auction”.
On the other hand the opposition BJP has challenged the Manmohan Singh-led government with “direct complicity”.
“I challenge the Prime Minister, Kapil Sibal, Chidambaram and the entire system who were guiding yesterday, let them say that the conclusions are not based on facts,” senior BJP leader and former finance minister Yaswant Sinha had said.
Branding UPA as a “coalition of the corrupt”, Joshi said Congress and its supporters had made a mockery of PAC meeting by rejecting the report after Joshi adjourned the proceedings.
—-Agencies