New Delhi, September 27: The Joint Parliamentary Committee on 2G spectrum allocation on Tuesday decided to summon Finance Secretary R.S. Gujral on October 13. The development comes after demands by members in the wake of a Finance Ministry note on the issue, sources said.
Earlier, during the meeting of the JPC, Opposition members termed as a “serious lapse” the non-submission of a Finance Ministry note on the 2G spectrum issue before the committee and demanded that the Finance Secretary be called before it to give clarifications.
As the JPC on the 2G issue met in New Delhi, Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Sitaram Yechury raised the issue of the Finance Ministry note that suggested that the then Finance Minister P. Chidambaram could have insisted on auction of 2G spectrum.
Mr. Yechury said the note in question was not among the documents submitted by the Finance Ministry to the JPC. He is understood to have contended that if the non-submission of the 2G note was a deliberate act, it amounted to breach of privilege and if it was a lapse, it was a serious one.
Bharatiya Janata Party member S.S. Ahluwalia demanded that the Finance Secretary be summoned on Tuesday to provide clarification on the issue.
JPC chairman P.C. Chacko expressed difficulty in asking the Finance Secretary to appear before the committee at such a short notice but it cut no ice with the members.
They insisted that a senior Ministry official be asked to appear before the committee for explanation. The JPC had met to record evidence of former Telecom Secretary Nripendra Mishra. PTI
