Parliament adjourned for the day, Pranab calls all-party meeting

NEW DELHI - Both houses of parliament were adjourned for the day Monday as opposition MPs persisted with their demand for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum allotment scam.

After initial adjournment at 11 a.m., the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha met at 12 noon but the opposition members once again shouted slogans demanding a JPC probe.

Amidst the din, both the houses were adjourned till Tuesday.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called an all-party meeting at 1 p.m. in an attempt to break the deadlock. This is the seventh successive day of disruptions in parliament over the demand for a JPC probe.

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.