CAG report on 2G allocation to be tabled today

The Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on the 2G spectrum allocation in 1998 is expected to be tabled in Parliament today. It indicts A Raja for the allotment of spectrum at throwaway prices; and the leakage of key findings of the report to the press led to Raja's resignation as telecom minister on Sunday.

The 'performance audit report on the issue of licences and allocation of 2G spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications will be tabled in the Lok Sabha by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, officials said. But as soon as the proceedings began, both houses of Parliament were adjourned till 12 noon following uproar over the scam.

Presentation of the report is expected to provide fresh fodder to the opposition, which is not satisfied with Raja's resignation and is pressing for Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe to unearth the entire scam, a demand rejected by the government.

The BJP and its allies as also the Left parties, the AIADMK, the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal are demanding that a JPC should examine the issue in the backdrop of reported contention by the CAG that the telecom ministry caused a loss to the tune of Rs1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer by allocating 2G spectrum at under-valued prices.

The government is desperately looking to end the deadlock in Parliament and has expressed readiness to discuss the CAG report after it is tabled. Mukherjee has also called a lunch meeting of all parties today in the hope of ending the impasse. Since the winter session began last week, the opposition has refused to let Parliament function.

The CAG report is ferocious in its indictment of Raja. Policies that violated official guidelines and favouritism towards companies that seemed ineligible for 2G licenses were attributed directly to Raja. Till 2008, he chose to award licenses at rates determined in 2001.