JPC on 2G scam to resume proceedings next week

The Joint Parliamentary Committee on the 2G scam will resume its proceedings next week when former Cabinet Secretary K M  Chandrasekhar appears before it as one of the 'essential witnesses' before the panel starts writing the draft report.

The JPC meeting on September 14 is taking place after a gap of three weeks when the Bharatiya Janata Party members stormed out of the proceedings on August 22 on the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram as witnesses.

Chandrasekhar is being called as the controversial 2G licences were allocated during his tenure as the country's top bureaucrat. He was in office from June, 2007 to June, 2011.     

Sources said besides the former Cabinet Secretary, the other 'essential witnesses' the committee seeks to examine before drafting the report are the telecom and finance secretaries, former law secretary, the present incumbent and the attorney General. "We may also call Central Bureau of Investigation and Central Vigilance Committee officials," an official said.

It is not yet clear whether the six BJP members on the panel will attend the next meeting.

Amid growing bitterness between ruling and opposition sides in the 30-member JPC, five out of the six BJP members present at the meeting had walked out, claiming that  Congress members had used foul language when they pressed for calling Singh and Chidambaram.

BJP insists that it was necessary to call Singh and Chidambaram for a 'fair investigation' into the 2G spectrum allocation scam of 2008.

Congress members had opposed the demand, saying senior ministers should not be subjected to 'insult' just for BJP's 'political gains'.