Non-NDA oppn parties to meet on Monday on 2G spectrum issue

With the deadlock in Parliament continuing, MPs from non-NDA opposition parties, including the Left, would meet on Monday to press for acceptance of their demand for a JPC probe into the spectrum scam.

In a bid to intensify pressure on the government, they would also hold an hour-long sit-in inside the Parliament precincts on Tuesday.

This was decided at a meeting of the leaders of CPI(M), CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, TDP, AIADMK, JD(S), MDMK, BJD, AGP and RLD in Parliament this afternoon.

The parties have been blaming the government for the deadlock in Parliament as a result of "non-acceptance" of their demand for setting up of a JPC and saying they have not been able to raise people's issues.

"Leaders of 11 parties today decided to hold a General Body meeting of all their MPs from Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha on Monday. They are expected to adopt a resolution that the government, by not accepting our JPC demand, is squarely responsible for the logjam in Parliament.

"As the two Houses are not functioning, we have been deprived of the opportunity to raise burning issues affecting the people like price rise and unemployment," CPI(M) leader Basudeb Acharia told PTI.

He said the MPs would also hold a protest sit-in near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi inside the Parliament premises.

Eighty MPs of these parties had last week marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan from the Parliament House and submitted a memorandum to President Pratibha Patil urging her to "advise" the Government to accept the Opposition demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam, which led to an estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

Terming the 2G spectrum scam as "biggest corruption after independence", these parties said that JPC was required not only to find out who was behind it and punish them but also to probe how the system was subjected to "massive manipulation".

CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had then said that it would have required only Rs 1.10 lakh crore to give the entire population 35 kg rice at the rate of Rs 3 a kg. "The money could have been used to eliminate hunger from the country", he had said.