Corruption Watch

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Parliament impasse: All-party meet comes a cropper

November 23, 2010 8:00:12 AM [url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/298304/Parliament-impasse-All-party-meet-comes-a-cropper.html"] link[/url]

IANS | New Delhi

Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee's effort to resolve the deadlock over a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum allotment scam failed Monday with the opposition rejecting the government's proposal to increase the powers of the public accounts committee (PAC).



"The stalemate continues," Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Ajit Singh said after the all-party meeting with Mukherjee.



The logjam persisted as the opposition did not agree to a government proposal to empower the PAC with a multi-disciplinary committee involving representatives from some investigative agencies.



The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has indicted A. Raja, who resigned as communications minister over the scandal, and said his policies could have caused [color="#FF0000"][size="5"]a loss of up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) to the exchequer[/size].[/color]



Parliament's winter session that began Nov 9 has witnessed repeated adjournments over the opposition's insistence for a JPC probe into the scam, even after Raja, who was at the heart of the controversy, resigned.