Lucknow, May 10: The UPA government came under attack from PAC chairman Murali Manohar Joshi on Tuesday, who accused the Centre of trying to stall the Public Accounts Committee’s probe in to the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Addressing a press conference here, Joshi said the government wants to stall the probe by controlling the PAC.
He also lashed out at the then finance minister P Chidambaram for saying the loss to the exchequer could not be evaluated, and Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal for claiming the loss was zero.
Joshi said the country wants to know how much loss the scam caused to the nation, who was behind it and what action is being taken against the culprits.
He also sought to know from the government how could a leading business daily publish the list of successful allottees of 2G licences a day before the names were officially announced.
Majority members of the PAC, divided on political lines, had rejected Joshi’s report on 2G spectrum allocation scam. Those opposed to the report termed it as ‘biased’ and ‘unilateral’.
The 270-page draft report had accused jailed former telecom minister A Raja for misleading Prime Minister Singh in the case. While giving a clean chit to the PM, the report had questioned the way in which Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) handled the 2G case.
The report criticizes Union Home Minister P Chidambaram.
But not withstanding the opposition to the report, Joshi went ahead and submitted the report to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
As per reports, she is likely to adopt a middle path in dealing with the issue, while her office maintains that the matter was “being examined”.
–Agencies