PAC report in,JPC sets briefing dates

With the PAC done with the 2G spectrum probe and the issue of conflict of interest not getting anywhere,the JPC is now set to take up the work assigned to it.

With the Public Accounts Committee PAC done with the 2G spectrum probe and the issue of conflict of interest not getting anywhere,the Joint Parliamentary Committee JPC is now set to take up the work assigned to it.

The JPC has scheduled two meetings,for May 18 and 19,for briefings by representatives of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology,Ministry of Finance and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI.

According to official sources,officials of TRAI,Department of Revenue of the Finance Ministry and the Department of Telecommunications will brief the JPC on the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum between 1998 and 2009.

Officials from the Department of Telecommunications will also dwell on technical and scientific dimension of the concept of radio frequency spectrum,its allocation and related aspects.

The JPC,headed by senior Congress MP P C Chacko,has been mandated to look into the 2G spectrum scam besides examining matters related to allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum between 1998 and 2009.

The first meeting of the JPC on March 24 was marked by differences between Congress and BJP members over what the ruling party contingent described as a conflict of interest. The Congress members argued that two BJP representatives on the panel Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha should not serve on the committee because they had been finance ministers during the period under scrutiny. Since they had been party to the formulation of telecom policies,they could not objectively view them now.

The BJP contention was that if former ministers were to be barred from the panel,eight people would have to opt out of the committee. As the members had been nominated by their parties,the Congress could not appropriate the BJP right to nominate its representatives.

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Manish Tewari of the Congress had also conveyed to the committee that he had tendered legal advice to certain telecom companies and had represented them between 2001 and 2005.