Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar today urged upon the Chairman and other Members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT to begin an independent investigation into 2G spectrum scam.
Chandrasekhar, who is also member of the Committee, in a letter, said the scam related to the telecom sector at its core.
Besides review of the CAG report by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), it is critical that the Standing Committee on IT seek independent depositions from government officials, TRAI, industry experts and media to understand the factors that led to such a scam, he said.
The government auditor CAG has quantified a whopping revenue loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore due to distribution of licences and 2G spectrum in 2008 by former telecom minister A Raja at throw away prices.
Based on an independent investigations, the Committee will be in the best position to make specific recommendations, including amendments to the policy, procedure and legislation (TRAI Act, as appropriate), which will prevent such scams from occurring in the future, he said.
Earlier, Chandrasekhar had accused Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata of being one of the major beneficiaries of recent telecom policy by getting spectrum out-of-turn when the government allowed dual technology for mobile services.
His open letter to Tata had led to a war of words between the two with both accusing each other.
Chandrasekhar, a former telecom entrepreneur, was also chairman of the GSM operators' lobby Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and had vehemently opposed limited mobility services on fixed line licences.
"Matters specific to telecom go beyond the CAG report and fall directly under the domain of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT," Chandrasekhar said in the letter.
He said the committee will be in much better position to investigate into all aspects of the 2G spectrum scam and recommend steps to ensure that such incidents do not occur in future.
