PM announces JPC on 2G spectrum scam

The Prime Minister has announced that his government will set up a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to study the 2G spectrum scam. In Parliament today, he said, "On account of the controversy relating to allocation of 2G spectrum, the winter session of Parliament was lost. Our country can ill-afford this...in paralyzing Parliament, we all do disservice to those who have elected us." Adding that his government had failed to convince the Opposition that a JPC was not needed, Dr Manmohan Singh said, "It is in these special circumstances that our government agrees to a JPC...we are a functioning democracy and must try to resolve our difference is the spirit of collaboration not competition." Dr Singh stressed that he believed that the inquiry into the scam was being comprehensively handled by different agencies like the CBI whose investigation into the scam is being supervised by the Supreme Court. The PM said that a report by Justice Shivraj Patil had also been completed and shared with investigating officials. And that Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is already questioning officials involved with the mobile licenses that were allocated in 2008.