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2G: Behura drags in RBI Governor New Delhi, July 27 Behura’s submission before a court targeting the former Finance Secretary reflected the trend of the 2G scam accused naming top leaders and officials after former Telecom Minister A Raja named Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Attorney General GE Vahanvati over the last two days. Opposing the framing of charges of corruption and other penal offences against him in the case, Behura told the Special CBI judge O P Saini that Subbarao had decided against revising the entry fee of Rs 1,659 crore for 2G licence and if he is not an accused in this case, he (Behura) too should not have been put on trial. “Subbarao finalised the decision taken at the meeting of December 4, 2007, that the policy stood approved and the entry fee (of Rs 1,659 crore fixed in 2001 during NDA’s regime) need not be revised,” Behura’s counsel Aman Lekhi told the court. Behura is behind bars for the past six months. “Even the Finance Minister (then P Chidambaram) was also present at the meeting (held on December 4, 2007). If Subbarao, who was part of the Finance Ministry, did commit no wrong, how come I did it? Going by the same principle, if I have been made an accused then Subbarao should also be made an accused,” he said. The former bureaucrat defended himself against the charges against him, saying the acts done by him were in pursuance of the government policy and he did not commit any wrong that caused a loss to the exchequer. Asserting that there was “not an iota of evidence” against him, Behura said he was only a civil servant who had no role to play except implementing the government’s policy. — PTI
Yashwant wants PC quizzed New Delhi, July 27 He demanded the summoning of Chidambaram in a letter to JPC chairman PC Chacko. Asked if Chidambaram would be called, Chacko said, “We have agreed to call Raja. If he says something which warrants further interrogations, we will see who to call. It will be through consensus in the committee.” Sinha, who was a member of the Public Accounts Committee which had in its controversial 2G report deliberated on the role of Chidambaram, has been maintaining that the former Finance Minister’s role in the scam was implicit. Sinha has also been saying (as mentioned in the PAC report on 2G) that a Cabinet decision of 2002 mandating Spectrum pricing issues to be finalised jointly by the Finance Ministry and the Telecom Department was diluted in 2006 and Chidambaram did nothing to prevent the loss of money to the exchequer or stop Raja from handing down 122
licences.
Telecom
ex-Secy admits to overruling Gujral Former Telecom Secretary AV Gakok (from 1996 to 98) overruled the decision of the then Prime Minister, IK Gujral, to get the nascent telecom sector reviewed by the TRAI. Gakok, whom the JPC quizzed today, admitted that he had unilaterally given the job to the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Pricing and ICICI instead of TRAI. Asked why he did so, Gakok said he was concerned about the health of the telecom industry and wanted the report in time and that TRAI would have taken longer. Eventually, the BICP and ICICI reports came in November 1998 after Gakok had retired and 11 months after the projects were given. — TNS
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Close on the heels of seeking a CBI probe into the role of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram in the 2G Spectrum scam, BJP leader Yashwant Sinha today sought that the minister be called for questioning before the JPC examining the scam.