The Committee was set up to look into procedural lapses in allocation of 2G spectrum licenses. The report states that the procedures adopted were unfair, incorrect and non-transparent.
Sharing the report of the single-man panel under former Supreme Court Judge Shivraj V. Patil, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here that it will now be referred to the CBI for further investigation. Mr. Sibal said, the NDA government had violated the Cabinet decision of 2003 and TRAI recommendation for multi staged bidding for additional players by allocating licenses on first-cum-first served basis.
Conceding that there were lapses on part the Department of Telecommunication, Mr. Sibal however reiterated that former Telecom Minister A Raja only followed the policy decision taken under the NDA government in 2003. He admitted that the Department of telecom ignored the opinion of Law ministry during the UPA government and added that the Committee has recommended comprehensive spectrum reforms and penalty on hoarding spectrum. The BJP has dubbed the report as an attempt to bail out former Telecom Minister A Raja and insisted that only a JPC probe could bring out the truth. BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said, BJP will comprehensively respond after going through the contents of the report.