Speaker may call all-party meeting to break JPC impasse

NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is expected to make another effort to break the impasse between the government and opposition parties on the demand for a JPC probe into the 2G spectrum scam by calling a meeting of all political parties.

Official sources said Monday the meeting of political parties may be called at the end of this week.

Kumar had Friday made a fresh appeal to all political parties to break the deadlock in parliament over a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe and said an all-party meeting would be called shortly to discuss the issue. She had said that dialogue was the only way out of the impasse.

The fresh move comes amid efforts by the government to counter the opposition campaign on the JPC. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Monday wrote a letter to Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Murli Manohar Joshi offering to appear before the panel looking into the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the 2G spectrum allocation.

Joshi, who is a senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, said the panel would take “appropriate decision at an appropriate time” on the prime minister’s offer.

He also made it clear that PAC was not tied to CAG report and can look into any issue involving misuse of public money.

The Nov 9-Dec 13 winter session of parliament was washed out following the stalemate over the opposition’s demand for a JPC. The government has made several offers to break the logjam, including a special session of parliament to discuss the opposition’s demand. The opposition has threatened to carry its protest to the budget session of parliament that begins in the last week of February.