JPC meet on 2G put off as differences persist between UPA,Oppn

Sources said Joint Parliamentary Committee chief P C Chacko was holding one-on-one talks with opposition members to finalise the list of witnesses to be called before the panel.

Opposition parties have demanded summoning Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Congress, which has a majority in the JPC, along with SP, BSP and other UPA partners, wants to prepare the report by next month so that the final report can be tabled in Parliament in December when the term of the panel comes to an end.

A section of Congress members are of the opinion that if BJP continues to press for summoning of the Prime Minister and Chidambaram, they should also insist on calling Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj as a witness as she had held the Telecom portfolio during NDA regime.

They claimed that former Telecom Ministers Jagmohan and Arun Shourie should also be summoned as a witness as he was against several decisions taken by the NDA government on issues relating to telecom.

Amid differences, today's meeting was postponed for a "couple of days". Chacko said since one of the members Jaswant Singh is contesting the vice presidential poll, the meet was put off.

Chacko's meetings with opposition leaders have yielded little results as both Congress and BJP have stuck to their stand on summoning witnesses.

BJP members said the list prepared by Chacko consisting of 70-odd witnesses should be further scrutinised as it had the name of a PMO official who had passed away long ago.