DMK leader T R Baalu said he had given a notice of breach of parliamentary privilege against Chacko over the leakage of the JPC draft report.
A former TRAI chief, who appeared before a Parliamentary panel today, rejected suggestions that private telecom players benefitted from his decisions.
The government on Friday said it was not averse to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on the Italian VVIP helicopter deal, a move seen as an attempt to ensure a smooth budget session of Parliament commencing next week.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee, probing the 2G telecom spectrum allocation scam, is unlikely to call former Telecom Minister A Raja as a witness before it.
Rejecting Opposition demand for removal of P C Chacko as Joint Parliamentary Committee chairman, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Thursday asked the panel chief and members to work out an agreeable solution to end the current "impasse" on its report on 2G Spectrum.
Fifteen opposition members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum scam on Wednesday wrote to the committee secretariat rejecting the panel's draft report in toto, setting the stage for worsening of the confrontation with the government on the issue. The 15 members, who had met Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar last week to express "no-confidence" in panel chief P C Chacko, wrote separate letters stating that they are rejecting the report "in toto".
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance on Saturday demanded to know how the Joint Parliamentary Committee's draft report on 2G spectrum allocation issue had exonerated Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram without examining them and appealed to all members of the committee to reject the document.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja, the main accused in 2G spectrum scam, has told the Joint Parliamentary Committee that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was in the loop over policy decisions and has accused Attorney General G E Vahanvati of telling a "series of untruths" against him.
She also proposed that nine issues, including violence in Manipur and price rise, be listed for discussion during the session.
Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairman P C Chacko on Thursday decided to refer to the Lok Sabha Speaker the demand to summon Finance Minister P Chidambaram as a witness before the panel on the 2G scam.
Much drama is likely to continue in the coming year, within the Sangh Parivar as well as involving the Opposition parties and, of course the BJP's allies, predicts Modi biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
They said the proposal to bring a motion was mooted at the meeting of party MPs this morning and Congress leaders are now talking to other party leaders over it.
Former telecom minister A Raja on Monday wrote a strongly-worded letter to Joint Parliamentary Committee Chairman P C Chacko, slamming the draft report of the committee on the 2G scam.
Even as Bharatiya Janata Party MPs are boycotting the Joint Parliamentary Committee looking into the 2G spectrum scam, the panel's chairman P C Chacko has ruled out summoning of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
He was the financial secretary when the 2G licences were allocated.
Bharatiya Janata Party members on Wednesday walked out of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the 2G scam, dubbing it as a 'kangaroo court' following differences on the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to depose before it.
Parliament's Public Accounts Committee chairperson M M Joshi on Thursday indicated that overlapping of functions of the panel and the Joint Parliamentary Committee into 2G spectrum scam was not a matter of concern and his powers went beyond the Comptroller and Auditor General report.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee has found not a "single file or record" to show any culpability of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G spectrum allocation, its chairman P C Chacko said justifying the clean chit to them in the draft report.
The United Progressive Alliance is seriously considering increasing the strength of the proposed Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G scam from 21 to 30 members to accommodate more parties, but it is in no mood to expand its scope of the JPC to cover Commonwealth Games (CWG) fiasco, the Adarsh Society scam and the cancelled ISRO S-band spectrum sale.
With the prime minister rejecting his demand for appearing before the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Yashwant Sinha has alleged that Manmohan Singh gained "cheap publicity" by announcing at the Congress conclave that he was ready to appear before the Public Accounts Committee when he did not intend to do so.
Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar held talks with leaders of the opposition in her attempt to break the Parliament impasse on the 2G spectrum issue.Leaders of several parties including the Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, Akali Dal, Samajwadi Party, RJD and the National Conference did not attend the luncheon meeting called by the Speaker to find a solution to the deadlock.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday rejected the demand for a joint parliamentary committee probe into the 2G spectrum scam and hit out at the opposition, saying that the country will not forget and forgive them for the wastage of an entire session of Parliament.Turning down the Opposition demand for a JPC into the 2G spectrum issue, Gandhi said there was no need for a JPC when the Public Accounts Committee and the Central Bureau of Investigation were probing the case.
The standoff between the government and the Opposition over the issue of Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum, which led to the washing out of Parliamentary business in the entire winter session, could cast its shadow even on the budget session. And indication to this was given by Janata Dal-United chief Sharad Yadav on Saturday.
Former telecom minister A Raja has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to return the Joint Parliamentary Committee report on the 2G spectrum scandal and resubmit it with his written statement.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Tarun Vijay on Friday rejected the government theory that the Central Bureau of Investigation raids on Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is a natural culmination of unearthing the corruption in staging the gala Games.
Though a first time Member of Parliament, All India Congress Committee spokesperson Manish Tewari has a long association of nearly 31 years with the Congress, since joining its youth wing in 1981. The 47-year-old leader was seen as a strong defence line of the Congress in the Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party's onslaught.
Parliament's Budget session has been a washout since the beginning of its second part on March 13, with the BJP demanding an apology from Gandhi.
Dissatisfied with the reply about non-submission of the controversial March 25 note on 2G spectrum allocation before the panel examining the issue, non-United Progressive Alliance members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Monday asked the finance ministry to provide input documents that helped its compilation.
The row over the 2G note on Tuesday resonated in the Joint Parliamentary Committee meeting with members alleging that facts were being suppressed, prompting the Committee to summon two top finance ministry officials besides demanding affidavits from government that all relevant documents have been given.
With the 2G spectrum issue getting caught in a logjam in the Joint Parliamentary Committee, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sought to bring the matter to the forefront of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, saying the matter is pending and should be disposed of.
The turf war over 2G Scam inquiry has refused to die down with the Joint Parliamentary Committee planning to discuss on Thursday whether the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi, has gone beyond its mandate.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G scam is set to get a fresh extension with the Lok Sabha on Monday unanimously adopting a resolution to this effect.
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.
Dr Murali Manohar Joshi, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, has said that the constitution of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the 2G spectrum scam would in no way hamper the job of the PAC that is investigating the massive scam right now.He was reacting to the statement made by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that once the JPC was announced, the ongoing probe by PAC will amount to duplication of work.
Senior Congress member P C Chacko was on Friday made the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G spectrum issue, setting in motion the probe into what the opposition is alleging as the biggest scam in independent India.
According to the current plan in Congress party quarters to end the stand-off on a parliamentary probe into the telecom scam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to make a statement in Parliament on Tuesday, a day after it convenes, asking the Speaker to form a Joint Parliamentary Committee on the subject.By the rules, Speaker Meira Kumar will authorise this. A JPC generally has two-thirds of its members from the Lok Sabha and the rest from the Rajya Sabha.
Sources in the JPC said that panel Chairman P C Chacko is set to tell Raja that instead of appearing before JPC as a witness, he can submit a "rebuttal note" on the statement made by Attorney General G E Vahanvati before the Committee that the controversial press note regarding 2G licences was changed at the last minute by the former telecom minister in 2008 with a different pen.
Opposition parties have called for a discussion in Parliament on the Maha Kumbh tragedy and the UP government's alleged focus on VIPs rather than the common pilgrims. Union minister Kiren Rijiju has stated that the Business Advisory Committee will decide on the agenda of the Budget Session, which will start from January 31. The Session will commence with President Droupadi Murmu addressing the joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. The Union Budget will be presented on February 1.
Hours after Congress leader Manish Tewari on Thursday said the government might get the Digital Data Protection Bill classified as a money bill, Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw refuted the charge and termed it a "normal bill".
In the letter, they said as members of the committee, it is their moral and constitutional responsibility to discuss this matter with utmost urgency and the required sincerity.
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