After having conceded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam, the government on Wednesday decided to cede more ground to the Opposition in the composition of the committee.
According to government sources, the Opposition’s demand that there should be 30 members in the JPC, including the chairman has been accepted, bringing more parties into the ambit of the JPC.
As of now, the government has assured the Opposition that the JPC would include representation from many of the smaller parties which were apprehensive that they would be left out.
?The JPC will be as follows : The Congress will have 11 members, of which eight will be from the Lok Sabha and three from the Rajya Sabha. The BJP will have five members, three from the Lok Sabha and two from the Rajya Sabha, the Janata Dal (U), the DMK, the BSP and the four Left parties combined will have two members each, divided equally between both Houses of Parliament. The Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress, the AIADMK, The Shiv Sena, the BJD and the NCP will have one member each,? said a government source.
The inclusion of the AIADMK will come as a relief for the party which spearheaded the campaign on 2G spectrum but because of lack of numbers faced the prospect of being left out of the committee. The announcement will be made on Thursday when the debate on motion of thanks to the president for her address will be concluded and a debate on the JPC will be initiated. PM Manmohan Singh will be speaking at the end of a debate on the motion of thanks to the president for her address.
Government managers say this speech would not only aggressively counter the Opposition’s campaign on corruption but will appeal to both Houses of Parliament to push forward with the reformist agenda outlined for this Budget session.
Meanwhile, The BJP has given the names of the leaders to be on the committee. It has nominated Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Harin Pathak from the Lok Sabha and Ravi Shankar Prasad and HS Ahluwalia from the Rajya Sabha.