2G scam: JPC report submitted to Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar

New Delhi: 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 today submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. The report, on which six parties have submitted dissent notes, also rubbishes the loss figure of Rs 1.76 lakh crore estimated by CAG, saying it was “ill-conceived”. [caption id=“attachment_1200561” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Meira Kumar. PTI[/caption] JPC Chairman PC Chacko submitted the report along with the dissent notes, which termed it as a “bundle of contradictions” to the Speaker at her official residence. The report, which delved into the period between 1998 and 2009, will be tabled in Parliament in the Winter Session likely to commence in the first week of December. Chacko is learnt to have used his power to “edit” five of the six dissent notes to redraft the language which, according to him, was unparliamentary. The dissent notes are a way to record members’ objections to the findings and are appended with the final report when it is tabled. Eleven opposition members, including BJP’s 5 and one each of BJD, TMC, CPI, CPI(M), AIADMK and DMK voted against the JPC report. BJP’s Gopinath Munde had not attended the meeting. In its dissent note, BJP insisted that the Prime Minister and then Finance Minister P Chidambaram should have been asked to depose before the JPC. They regretted that even though the main accused, Raja, had made several offers to depose before the panel, he was not allowed to do so. The report, which was adopted by majority vote on 27 September in the absence of two JD(U) members, also accuses Raja of forging the press note of 7 January, 2008, after it was seen by the then Solicitor General GE Vahanvati. Besides Congress, its UPA ally NCP and outside supporters of the ruling alliance SP and BSP had supported the report. The Committee wish to point out that the procedure regarding the First-Come-First-Served (FCFS) criteria was a “misrepresentation of facts and in tactic deviation from the existing procedure”, the report says. While giving sequence of events leading to allocation of 2G spectrum, it says, “The Committee are inclined to conclude that the Prime Minister was misled about the procedure decided to be followed by the Department of Telecommunications in respect of issuance of Unified Access Services (UAS) licences. “Further, the assurance given by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology (Raja) in all his correspondence with the Prime Minister to maintain full transparency in following established rules and procedures of the Department stood belied.” It has also questioned NDA’s decision to grant concessions to telecom companies on licence fee despite protests by then Telecom Minister Jagmohan and says the then government had to “forego” over Rs 42,000 crore in offering Migration Package to cellular operators. On the issue of extending concessions to telecom operators such as moratorium on payment of licence fee, the panel said the government went ahead despite opposition by Jagmohan who was supported by then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. The report also said that by offering Migration Package, the government had to forego revenue to the tune of Rs 42,080.34 crore. PTI