Giving details about the committee Mr. Mukherjee said it will have 20 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. The Chairman of the committee will be decided by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
The Constitution of a Joint Committee of both Houses as announced by Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is broad-based to include allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum from 1998 to 2009. The United Progressive Alliance which was under attack from the main opposition- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on allegations of corruption appears to have scored a political point.
The salient feature of the motion says “To examine policy prescriptions and their interpretation thereafter by successive Governments, including decisions of the Union Cabinet and the consequences thereof, in the allocation and pricing of telecom licenses and spectrum from 1998 to 2009.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance under Atal Behari Vajpayee was in power from 1998 to 2004.’ JPC would examine irregularities and aberrations, if any and the consequences thereof in the implementation of Government decisins and policy prescriptions from 1998 t0 2009. And to make recommendations to ensure formulation of appropriate procedures for implemention of laid down policy in the allocation and pricing of telecom likenesses Mr Mukherjee also announced 20 nominees from the Lok Sabha which includes the present Chairman of the Public Sector Undertakings committee Chandra Deo, P C Chacko and Manish Tiwari from the Congress, Mr Jaswant Singh, Yeshwant Sinha, Harin Pathak and Gopinath Munde from the (BJP), T R Balu (DMK), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI) and Thambi Durai (Ai-admk) to mention a few names. The Speaker will nominate one of the members of the Committee to be its Chairman. The Committee shall start functioning from the day it is duly constituted.
The Committee shall be provided all assistance by the Government and other agencies. The Joint Committee shall make a report to this House by the end of the next session of Parliament.
In other respects, the Rules of Procedure of this House relating to the Parliamentary Committees shall apply with such variations and modifications as the Speaker may make.
Speaking of the resolution, Mr Pranab Mukerjee expressed regret that the winter session was almost washed out and said that parliament cannot be mortgaged to concede to a particular demand. He said disruption of proceedings is an area of concern which needs to be addressed collectively. Later responding to a debate, he said that the government is prepared to walk an extra mile to accommodate the opposition.
The leader of the opposition, Mrs Sushma Swaraj alleged that due to delay by the executive and legislature, the judiciary has been forced to act. In her forceful speech, Mrs. Swaraj gave many examples holding the government responsible for such happening and also criticized it for delaying the setting up of JPC. Speaking in the same vein, Mr. Gurudas Dasgupta of the CPI said that the JPC has been set up at a stage when a series of measures including the arrest of former Telecom Minister has already taken place.
Dismissing the opposition allegations, the Telecom Minister Mr. Kapil Sibal clarified his stand on zero loss to the exchequer qualifying it with the government’s policy of allotting start of spectrum which comes bundled with a license to an operator. Members of JDU, RJD, CPIM, AIADMK were among those who spoke in favour of the motion.