JPC to meet on March 24

The Joint Parliamentary Committee, constituted to probe the 2G Spectrum scam, will have its first meeting on March 24.

"The first meeting of the JPC will be held on March 24," the Panel Chairman PC Chacko told PTI today.

The meeting would finalise the Committee's roadmap, including witnesses to be called and documents to be sought.    The 30-member JPC, which has been asked to give its report on the issue by the end of the next session of the Parliament, was formed earlier this month after a prolonged stalemate in both the Houses over the 2G scam.

The formation of the JPC brought down the curtains on a three-month deadlock in both the Houses between the government and the Opposition, which latched on to a CAG report on alleged irregularities in 2G spectrum allocations and pegged the presumptive loss to the national exchequer at Rs 1.76 lakh crore.

The Committee will look into the telecom policy pursued from 1998 to 2009 including the allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum and examine "irregularities and aberrations, if any and the consequences of their implementation.