New Delhi:
The crucial sitting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee slated to be held on Monday to adopt its controversial draft report on 2G scam has been postponed in view of the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting.
"...the sitting of the JPC...scheduled to be held on September 23, 2013 has been postponed due to specific requests received from some of the members on account of pre-occupation with other important engagements including meeting of the National Integration Council on the same date," a notice circulated to the members today read.
Panel chief PC Chacko said the next date of the meeting will be announced at the earliest.
The meeting is expected to be stormy as it has to adopt the controversial draft report which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, but had indicted former Telecom Minister A Raja for the 2G scam.
Battle lines have been drawn for the meeting as BJP and Left members are all set to oppose the draft report by either giving strong notes of dissent or even demanding a vote.
The JPC has 20 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. It has 12 members of the ruling UPA - Congress (11) and NCP (1). Among its outside allies, SP has one member and BSP two.
Opposition camp has BJP (6), BJD (1), TMC (1), CPI (1), CPI-M (1), DMK (1) and AIADMK (1). JD(U), which recently split with BJP, has two members and the party's stand will be crucial.
Besides, there is one nominated member from the Rajya Sabha.
The JPC has not met for a variety of reasons since April when the draft report was circulated to the members. Its last meeting took place in February this year.
The term of the JPC was recently extended till the end of the Winter Session of Parliament. This was the sixth extension to the JPC set up in March, 2011.