Manmohan Singh to address Parliament on 2G spectrum issue

NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is expected to make a statement in Parliament on Monday on the alleged 2G spectrum scam.

He is likely to refer to A Raja’s decision to resign from the post of telecom minister in the statement.

Raja, under sustained pressure from the Opposition, finally submitted his resignation to Dr. Singh.

Talking to reporters here, Raja said: “In order to avoid embarrassment to the Government and maintain peace and harmony in Parliament, he has resigned from his post.”

He, however, said he will prove his innocence and did every thing in accordance with the law.

Earlier, the Congress had asked the DMK to ask Raja to quit. However, according to DMK sources, the party had refused to take any hasty decisions.

Raja met DMK chief M Karunanidhi in Chennai twice in the last 24 hours, before flying back to Delhi and went straight to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s 7 Race Course Road residence to hand over his resignation letter.

The 2G spectrum allocations caused an alleged loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore to the Government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has stated in a damning report.

The report further states that Raja had no apparent logical or valid reasons to ignore the advice of the Law and Finance Ministries while allocating telecom spectrum to several firms in 2007-08.

The report is likely to be tabled in Parliament within ten days. (ANI)