The joint parliamentary committee (JPC) set up to probe the 2G scam is yet to complete its work even as the period of its first extension gets over at the end of budget session next month. JPC chairman PC Chacko said a resolution will be moved for the extension when parliament gets back from the recess for the second half of the budget session next week.
Chacko explained on Tuesday that five members of the panel need to be replaced as Akhilesh Yadav and Vijay Bahuguna from Lok Sabha have assumed charge as chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand and three from Rajya Sabha - SS Ahluwalia, Ravi Shankar Prasad from the BJP and Praveen Rakshapal from the Congress - have retired from the House.
They have ceased to be members of the panel. He said the panel placed on record its appreciation of the work done by the outgoing members. Chacko made a special mention of Ahluwalia for his interventions.
The chairman said the committee had so far had 33 sittings spanning hours of deliberation, which included briefings from the Comptroller and Auditor General, including RP Singh, a former auditor general and officials from the department of economic affairs. It had also called in former secretaries of the department of economic affairs.
The committee has finished questioning the former secretaries of the department of telecom (DoT), apart from Siddharth Behuria, who is now in Tihar prison facing trial on charges of corruption. He could not appear before the panel on as he had to be in the court.
Former telecom secretary PJ Thomas, in office from October 1, 2009 to November 7, 2010, appeared before the panel on Tuesday. He explained that the department had made a reference to the ministry law and justice about the powers of the CAG under Article 149. This was with reference to the performance audit report of the CAG which was received on July 19, 2010, and involved the issue of licences for 2G spectrum.
Thomas told the panel that the DoT observed that the CAG had challenged the policy decision with regard to unified access service license allocation, the failure of price discovery of spectrum, which are basically policy issues.
