Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday ruled out a Joint P Parliamentary Committee investigation into alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation, but appealed to the Opposition to let Parliament function smoothly.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee set up to probe allegations of pesticides in soft drinks has expanded its ambit to cover juices, iced tea, milk and milk products, liquor and even bottled water.
The meeting would finalise the Committee's roadmap, including witnesses to be called and documents to be sought.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja's written submission before the Joint Parliamentary Committee, in which he had claimed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in the loop over policy decisions, does not form part of the panel's report on 2G spectrum scam.
The Joint Parliament Committee report, tabled in Parliament on Thursday, has indicted former finance secretary Ajit Kumar for failing to resolve in time the redemption problem of the Unit Trust of India.
Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan was named a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee into the 2G spectrum scam after her colleague Abhishek Singhvi recused himself taking the plea that he had appeared for cellular operators in the court as a senior advocate.
It will be presented in the Lok Sabha next week in its original form.
The Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray on Saturday said Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar not favouring formation of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe allegations against the Adani group will not lead to cracks in opposition unity.
While there are divergent views within the ruling Congress party on the anarchy and chaos within the government and Parliament, the two predominant views are: why is the government not agreeing to the opposition demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe (into the 2G spectrum scam), and the second the stalemate has reached such proportion that some leaders are even talking that if there is no JPC, the country may well be headed towards a mid-term poll which nobody wants
The Samajwadi Party is going all out against the Congress, drawing parallels to the Watergate scandal.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the misuse of the Central Bureau of Investigation by the Congress led-United Progressive Alliance government.
The Pal-led committee is currently on a tour of five states to speak to various stakeholders though opposition members have boycotted it.
The demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into disclosures by retail giant Walmart on lobbying in India was made by several members in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, BJP MP Harin Pathak, a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee probing the 2G scam, says without mincing words that panel chief P C Chacko cannot decide exclusively whether to summon prime accused former Union Telecom Minister A Raja or not.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress were on Wednesday locked in a confrontation in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G scam with members of the main opposition storming out of its meeting over the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram and threatening to quit from it.
The drafting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on 2G scam could be delayed with key United Progressive Alliance ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam insisting on calling former Telecom Minister A Raja as a witness.
The JPC on soft drinks has upheld findings of CSE that 12 branded products of Pepsi and Coca-Cola it examined did contain pesticide residues and asked the government to formulate stringent quality norms for carbonated drinks.
He said the CBI would go into all aspects of the bribery allegations.
The controversial report of the JPC, which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja, was on Monday tabled in Lok Sabha amid pandemonium.
The board of the Unit Trust of India on Monday formed a three-member sub-group to study the Joint Parliamentary Committee's report on UTI and suggest an action plan in about a month's time.
The Congress on Wednesday asserted that the only way to comprehensively investigate the Adani issue is through a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) and claimed that the Supreme Court-appointed expert committee would be a 'clean chit' panel for the government.
Ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Opposition parties convened by the government, Congress on Friday appeared to have softened its stand on the joint parliamentary committee probe issue in a bid to break the deadlock in Parliament on the 2G spectrum allocation scam."We are open to discussing such a resolution in Parliament on the JPC issue," Congress spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said, noting that she was seeking cooperation of the Opposition to ensure a smooth budget session.
Opposition MPs in the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Waqf (Amendment) Bill are scheduled to meet Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday to protest its chairperson Jagdambika Pal's alleged 'unilateral' decisions and attempts to 'bulldoze' proceedings, indicating that they may disassociate themselves from the panel.
Asserting that the Bharatiya Janata Party would continue to insist on a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum allocation issue, senior party leader M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said it is the government's responsibility to resolve the stalemate in Parliament.
The meeting of the Joint Committee on Waqf (Amendment) Bill took an ugly turn as the Trinamool Congress MP smashed a glass water bottle and threw it towards panel chairman Jagdambika Pal of the Bharatiya Janata Party during a heated exchange of words with BJP's Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a former Calcutta high court judge.
A Joint Parliamentary Committee will probe the controversial chopper deal, with the government on Wednesday asserting that there will be "no cover up" as it was determined to go to the root of the scam and give maximum punishment to the guilty.
Chairman of Public Accounts Committee Murli Manohar Joshi on Tuesday said that there was no conflict or clash between the Joint Parliamentary Committee and the panel headed by him and both can function within their own domain to probe irregularities in 2G spectrum allocation. He said that the JPC was supposed to work under specific terms of reference and conditions and did not have the right to summon the prime minister or any minister but PAC was a constitutional body.
At a time 20-odd opposition parties, many of them regional rivals, joined forces over the Adani issue, Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar's open support for industrialist Gautam Adani has put a question mark on the durability of a non-Bharatiya Janata Party block in the run-up to the 2024 parliamentary elections.
Against the backdrop of the opposition's demand for his removal, Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairman P C Chacko on Friday met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to explain his position on the issues concerning the controversial draft report on 2G scam. There were indications that the meeting of the JPC, which was cancelled on Thursday because of the death of a Lok Sabha member, could take place on May 2 or May 3 to adopt the report.
An all out war broke out on Thursday in the JPC on 2G scam when half of its 30 members demanded removal of the committee chief P C Chacko and the ruling party hitting back by seeking the ouster of three BJP members.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam along with those of Commonwealth Games projects and Adarsh Housing society are neither correct nor timely, Communist Party of India said on Saturday.
In a bid to end the impasse inParliament, the government reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it was ready for a discussion on 2-G spectrum issue and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe but rejected the demand for a JPC, which failed to cut ice with the main opposition.
After staging a walkout from the meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G spectrum scam, the BJP on Tuesday accused its Chairman P C Chacko of being 'biased' and threatened to quit the panel.
Lambasting the government for multiplicity of laws and regulations on food safety standards, the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on pesticide residues in soft drinks has asked it to quickly finalise the draft Modern Integrated Food Law.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G scam has sought a copy of the Presidential Reference made by the Centre before the Supreme Court on its February 2 decision on allocation of second generation radiowaves.
Two Rajya Sabha members, including a nominated one, were today appointed to the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G scam amid stiff resistance from the Bharatiya Janata Party which feared "dangerous implications" and stalled proceedings for rest of the day.
The Left parties on Tuesday attacked Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for "virtually justifying" that a Joint Parliamentary Committee inquiry into the 2G spectrum scam was not required but was accepted by the government only to pacify the opposition.
The Question Hour in Lok Sabha has been disrupted every day since March 13.
