New Delhi:
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) studying the 2G spectrum scam is reportedly divided over finalising its report.
While one section, backed by chairman and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, is in favour of wrapping up its work and finalising the report before the committee's one-year term comes to an end on April 30, Congress members of the committee are said to be opposed to it.
Sources say the Congress fears an adverse report may rock the Monsoon Session of Parliament. UPA and its partners hence want the committee which will be constituted afresh after May 1 to complete the work and file the report, sources added.
Last week, the PAC saw some of its own members challenging its work. They pointed out that the same inquiry is also being conducted by the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC).
The Public Accounts Committee has 22 members - among them seven representatives from the Congress, four from the BJP, and two each from the AIADMK and DMK.
The Congress and the DMK both challenged the committee's investigation into the spectrum scam which has sent former Telecom Minister A Raja, who is from the DMK, to jail. Mr Raja is accused of giving spectrum and licences in 2008 at unjustifiable prices to companies that did not meet the pre-requisites laid out in government policy.
The government for months tried to resist setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), because it said the Public Accounts Committee would study the 2G scam. But the BJP and others insisted that a Joint Parliamentary Committee was needed to examine the larger issues like governance, ethics. The Public Accounts Committee's mandate on the other hand, is limited to the report on the 2G scam prepared by the government's auditor. Under pressure, the government conceded to a JPC in February 22.
Since then, many on the JPC have suggested that the PAC is no longer needed to investigate the 2G scam. Mr Joshi, as Chairman of the PAC, has differed with that opinion.
The term of the PAC expires on April 30. The new members will continue to be headed by Mr Joshi who has stressed that the PAC is a permanent parliamentary body vested with wide ranging responsibilities, as against the JPC, which is set up for a specific purpose for a limited time frame.