lok Sabha on Monday unanimously approved the extension of JPC tenure up to the end of the Monsoon Session. JPC Chairman PC Chacko moved the resolution in the lower House to gain time to convince the committee to adopt his controversial draft report. The term of the JPC was slated to end concurrently with the Budget Session of Parliament on May 10. The resolution is expected to be approved in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Fifteen members of JPC had sought Chacko’s removal after he came out with a draft report on 2G scam, giving clean chit to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister and passing the entire blame on former Telecom Minister A Raja. The report also blamed the NDA regime and also indicted former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Chacko didn’t convene a meeting of JPC to adopt a resolution for extension of its tenure due to lack of majority in the panel and not ready to face demand by the Opposition members for cancellation of his report. After Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath and Chacko met lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on Monday afternoon, it was decided to come out with the resolution to give an extension to the JPC.
This will be the fifth extension to the JPC set up in March, 2011. It is learned that before moving resolution, Chacko had met Opposition MPs in the JPC.
As many as 15 Opposition members including those from former UPA allies, DMK and Trinamool Congress, had earlier written separate letters to the Speaker contending that they lacked confidence in the JPC Chairman and appealed to her to immediately remove him. They had also rejected the draft report “in toto”.
The Speaker expressed her inability to remove him as chairman and asked the members to “sink” their differences and produce a report. While these 15 members stand united in opposing the draft report, Samajwadi party has has made it clear that it would not support the report if Raja was not called as a witness.