Pandemonium in House over JPC, 2G

Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Lok Sabha on Thursday during the debate on the 2G scam losses and the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into it.

The ruling party lawmakers and their Opposition counterparts shouted at each other as Telecom Minister Kabil Sibal spoke and mentioned that the 2G loss during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime was also at Rs 12000 crore.

He questioned the NDA policy on telecom too.

Speaker Meira Kumar asked the lawmakers to cool down and sit, but the shouting continued for a while.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj said why the JPC was delayed for so long.

She said even the allies of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) wanted a JPC.

Attacking the government, she said the government must introspect on the issue of corruption.

Earlier, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee moved the resolution for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam.

As Leader of the House in Lok Sabha, Mukherjee moved the resolution and said he regretted that the winter session of parliament was lost owing to the demand for a JPC.

“I am not going into why and how it happened,” he said, and expressed gratitude to the Opposition for their cooperation.

He said the government though that the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the House was enough to probe the 2G scam.

The Speaker of the House will choose the Chairman of the JPC.

The Government on Wednesday constituted the JPC with 30 members of Parliament.