CPI-M to government: If not JPC, suggest alternative

NEW DELHI - Maintaining that only a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) could probe scams like the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Monday asked the government to suggest viable alternatives if it did not want to appoint one.

“If the ruling party does not want a JPC, they must come out with an alternative which can substitute the probe as the JPC,” CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters outside parliament.

“The main issue is how to recover the money that was lost due to the act, government should come out with a solution,” he said.

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 a loss of up to Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion) to the exchequer.

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.