JPC meet put off till Sep 27

NEW DELHI, Sept 22:  The meeting of the Joint Parliamentary  Committee (JPC), which was earlier slated to be held tomorrow, will now be held on September 27 to adopt its controversial draft report on 2G scam.

The meet has been  put off due to the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting tomorrow.

JPC chief P C Chacko has said the meeting will now be held on September 27.

The meeting is likely 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.

Knives are out for the meeting as BJP and Left members are all set to oppose the draft report by either giving strong notes of dissent or 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.

Apart from this, there is one nominated member from the Rajya Sabha.

Due to a raft of reasons, the JPC has not met 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 constituted in March 2011.

(UNI)