Scanning FinMin note will take time

The Opposition parties in the joint parliamentary committee (JPC) are keen to get the Finance Ministry’s controversial note on the 2G spectrum allocation, but their members know it won’t still be easy to act upon the matter. For, the MPs’ panel is, right now, scrutinising the telecom policy during the erstwhile NDA regime.

Senior JPC members say they have yet to get the controversial letter and related documents after having requested the PMO to send their copies, once the news about it came to light. They will now, again, take up the issue during the JPC meeting tomorrow.

“It is going to take a lot of time,” says a senior member of JPC. “For, we are still scrutinising the telecom policy of 2004. As for the finance ministry’s letter to the PMO,

it was sent in 2011. So we won’t be able to act upon it immediately.”

For oral evidence, the parliamentary committee has invited Nripendra Mishra, former telecom secretary from February 2004 to March 2005.

The controversy over the note of Finance Ministry has brought out the division between home minister P Chidambaram and his financial affairs counterpart Pranab Mukherjee. The issue came to light last week after a finance ministry document was submitted to the Supreme Court on September 21 suggested that the telecom ministry could have gone in for auction of 2G spectrum licenses had the then finance minister P Chidambaram insisted on it.

“We will reiterate our demand for the note,” adds the JPC member.