NEW DELHI: The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), probing the security scam, has been granted four months” more time to Submit its report.
The Lok Sabha on Aug.21 unanimously adopted a motion extending the term of the JPC up to the last day of the winter session. The JPC was, however, severely criticized for its slow progress by the Leader of the Opposition Atal Behair Vajpayee who even threatened withdrawal of BJP members from the Committee if another extension was sought.
The winter session of Parliament which normally begins in November ends just before Christmas in December.
Expressing concern over the delay in the submitting of the report and repeated extensions, Vajpayee said the report should have been submitted in two parts to avoid the delay, The probe into the scam was losing its relevance because of the delay, he added. Vajapayee said many things like change in the banking system and action against the officials and banks involved were connected with the report, the sharply divided JPC has not been able to arrive at a consensus over the revised draft report. Op position members are sore that most of the amendments moved by them have not been incorporated in the revised draft while those moved by the Congress members have been liberally incorporated.
SJP members Yashwant Sinha and CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta have made no bones about their displeasure of rejection of most of the amendments moved by them. The Opposition has strongly objected to the shifting of the blame for the scam to previous government dating back to 1986 and toning down the observations made on Finance Minister Manmohan Singh in the Committee’s first draft report. Another contentious issue which has forced the Committee to go in for extension till the winter session of the Parliament is the Rs 1 crore payoff allegation against Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 3, 1993
