With the Comptroller and Auditor General reportedly accusing Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of irregularities in awarding certain Commonwealth Games contracts, the Delhi government on Wednesday stoutly rejected the allegations, saying she never "intervened to favour" any firm and all due processes were followed in finalising the contracts.
Cancellation of 2G licenses by the Supreme Court clearly revealed a big scam and it was a "collective failure" of the government which "overlooked" warnings given by the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Central Vigilance Commissioner on the issue, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy said on Thursday. "Everyone had warned, including the CAG and the CVC, but the government overlooked it," Swamy said soon after the Supreme Court cancelled the 122 spectrum licenses.
Reacting to Comptroller and Auditor General reports on defence preparedness, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said that the army has been given World War II vintage "toy-guns" to fight nuclear powers, an issue the government is "diverting" attention from by raising the differences between the Army chief and the defence minister.
DMK leader T R Baalu has given the notice for a special discussion, saying the reports appearing in the media showed that the loss figure in the 2G issue had been "inflated exponentially".
The text of Telecom and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal's statement defending Home Minister P Chidambaram on his alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum scam, on behalf of the United Progressive Alliance government
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was in the eye of a storm in Parliament on Monday with an agitated Opposition paralysing both the Houses demanding her immediate resignation over alleged irregularities in Commonwealth Games projects.
In an interview with CNN-IBN's National Bureau Chief Bhupendra Choubey, Public Accounts Committee Chairman Murali Manohar Joshi talks about the probe into the 2G spectrum scam and the government's flip flop on Comptroller and Auditor General report. Following is the transcript of the interview
He also said that Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy has not lied about the deal but it seems he has been misled.
'Good politics is not just staying in power. You cannot sacrifice everything at the altar of trying to ensure the coalition remains in power.'
Modi said his government had made efforts to make all kitchens in the country smoke free.
But company says govt decision to permit use of incremental coal does not result in any loss to exchequer or undue benefit.
In another huge embarrassment to the government after the 2G fiasco, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has estimated a Rs 10.6 lakh crore loss to the exchequer on account of allotment of coal blocks during 2004 to 2009 without auction to 100 private and public sector companies.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Tuesday, seeking review of its July 18 verdict in which it had accepted most recommendations of the R M Lodha panel on reforms in the cricketing body, saying the bench, headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur, had "a prejudiced approach" against it and he should recuse from hearing the matter.
As the rupee depreciated to a new 32-month low against the US dollar, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said the Reserve Bank is monitoring the situation and will intervene in the forex market "as and when necessary".
'The skills and abilities of civil servants are still respected, even though they become whipping boys when things go wrong.'
The Conflict ruling suggested in the Lodha reforms for BCCI came under criticism from several quarters as they believed it stopped the former cricketers from coming forward to help Indian cricket and cricketers.
The auditor said that in the case of performance audit on hydrocarbon production sharing contracts, 'interactive meetings were held with two operators, including RIL, prior to the finalisation of the draft performance audit report'.
Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy on Monday rejected senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi's attack on Home Minister P Chidambaram on the issue of CAG indictment of his ministry for alleged favours to private firms, saying such attacks would harm decision making at higher levels.
The plan of action ranges from drawdown of loans to seeking additional guarantees, to even recalling some of the loans, if the situation so warrants.
The apex court was hearing a plea of the NGO seeking initiation of contempt proceedings against the Union home secretary and chief secretary of J-K for their alleged 'wilful disobedience' in complying with the court's May 11 order. The top court told the administration that with the change of L-G, nothing changes as the special committee is there to look into the issue.
In popular perception, the villain of the piece is former civil aviation minister Praful Patel.
The embassy observations are part of a confidential official cable released by whistleblower website WikiLeaks on August 30.
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadia and justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar directed the CBI to conduct the probe on the basis of the survey reports provided by the petitioner, CAG report and the National Institute of Rural Development.
'We would be shooting in the foot if we don't play Pakistan in the World Cup. Our aim should be to ostracise Pakistan as a cricketing nation'
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday cornered the government for 'defending' Chief Vigilance Commissioner P J Thomas in the Supreme Court, asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi as to what was the 'compulsion' to defend the 'tainted' official and attack the upright comptroller and auditor general.
After a CAG report rapped the Delhi government for irregularities in CWG projects and dragged the prime minister's office in the 2G spectrum case, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday appeared all set to raise these issues in Parliament and even force adjournment of the two Houses.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha emphasised that the brand name has both sentimental and economical value.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi who heads the Public Accounts Committee in Parliament has said that the prime minister's offer to depose before the committee is being considered. Joshi said that the Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai had not been summoned, but was a partt of the committee's proceedings.
The report was tabled by deputy chief minister S K Modi in the state assembly.
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) has pulled up the company secretaries of two telecom companies whose names have been mentioned in the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG's) report on the controversial allotment of airwaves. The two officials named in the report are Hari Nair, representing Swan Telecom, and Vidyadhar Chakradeo, the company secretary of Loop Telecom.
If improving tele-density was the avowed objective, what is the benchmark? At what level of tele-density will the government auction spectrum? And that is the crux of the issue.
The documents include the Cabinet note on the policy prepared by DoT and papers related to the decision to clear the policy by the then Congress Cabinet.
Something can be done, provided we are willing to tackle the problem at its source rather than deal only with outrageous cases of corruption that are brought to the surface by the media, says Bimal Jalan.
The Kerala High Court, on Monday sought the Board of Control for Cricket in India's stand on a plea by cricketer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth challenging the life ban imposed upon him by the game's governing body after detection of the 2013 Indian Premier League-6 spot-fixing scandal.
According to reports, CAG has sought details from the department of telecommunication on the total available spectrum in the country and how much has been allocated to private telecom operators from 2000 onward and at what value.
If such a replacement is done, for example, in the 50 Rajdhani trains, officials said, it will create around 14,400 additional berths for AC-III passengers.
The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) on Monday sacked some of the previous officials of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, including Team India's media manager Nishant Arora.
The PAC had called the chiefs of the three defence services for a hearing after a CAG report pointed out irregularities in the supply chain management of rations by Canteen Stores Department. Singh appeared before the PAC headed by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi at around 1100 hrs and senior Army officials made a presentation of management of rations in the Army.
Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman will continue as members of Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) till the new constitution of the Board of Control for Cricket in India is adopted and the elections take place.
